According to November’s survey of 161 executive recruiters, 50% are confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve during the next six months – down from 56% last month and up significantly from all-time lows reached in November 2008 (26%). In 2010, executive search consultants are forecasting a 15% increase in assignments.

The recruiters surveyed expect the greatest growth in healthcare; clean/green tech; energy/utilities; life science; and high tech. The top five functions expected to be in greatest demand in 2010 are Business Development; Sales; Operations Management; Finance; and Engineering.

And with evidence that the longest recession since World War II is losing its grip on the U.S. economy (apparently just as job woes are heating up in Japan), do you align yourself with the 49% of recruiters who are confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve during the next six months? Or are you more aligned with the 7% of Execunet’s respondents who are not confident that the market will get better during this period of time (down from 14% last month and 20% in February)?

Mark Anderson, ExecuNet’s president, says the “deep cuts” many companies made during the past 18 months could mean “the pace of job growth during the year ahead could be stronger than expected in many industries.”

An executive recruitment company has just announced its plans to undercut competitors by offering a flat fee of 10% per month of what the employee is paid for 24 months.

If the employee does not stay with the company — Schwelling Recruiting Services, which specializes in C-level executives as well as sales executives and new business development executives — the employer is only responsible for the months actually worked.

What does this say about the company overall? And what does this say about the economy and what it’s doing to our competition?

Recruiters participating in the annual ExecuNet Job Market Intelligence Report predict a 14 percent decline in searches through June, after which a boomlet is expected that will erase most of the decline, ending 2009 down 4 percent over 2008.

The optimism is also reflected in the latest ExecuNet’s Recruiter Confidence Index. In decline since the beginning of 2007, the index rebounded from a low of 26 percent to 38 percent between February and March.

“We’ve been tracking their confidence level since the last recession, and their confidence has always been a leading indicator of the economy and executive employment,” ExecuNet President and Chief Economist Mark Anderson. “During the last recession, we saw recruiter confidence quickly strengthen six months ahead of the recovery.”

The report is the product of a survey of some 5,000 executives, search consultants, and corporate HR professionals. It’s an annual snapshot of the executive job market that spots trends and offers guidance for executives and recruiters.

For instance, the report shows the tenure of a business executive declined 15 percent between 2005 and 2008 to an average of 2.3 years. Meanwhile, only 29 percent of the HR professionals surveyed say their company has knowledge management and succession plans to address the loss of management skill.

“It takes roughly three years of deep entrenchment in a job to reach peak performance. With executives spending less time in organizations and often being judged on short-term stock price performance, they stop short of reaching their full potential,” says ExecuNet Vice President and Executive Editor Lauryn Franzoni.

While the economy may have tamped down the voluntary turnover rate for 2009 it also increased the length of time executives spend searching for a job. The report says executives now expect to spend an average of 10.1 months looking before landing.

So if they’re anywhere close to the industry average, executives are now spending about a third of the time they’re with a company searching for a new job.

The executive summary of the report itself doesn’t speak to that situation, though it does show that 73 percent of the executives are finding networking the most effective way of finding their next job. For another 10 percent, responding to job postings produced results, though the report suggests that fewer and fewer of these executive-level jobs find their way online.

“The sheer volume of résumés -– both qualified and unqualified –- that recruiters get from public postings, particularly as more candidates compete for fewer jobs, is staggering, and they find it prohibitive to post those jobs out in the open,” says Anderson. “Recruiters tell us they don’t want cold calls or emails; they want someone to refer you to them.”

On the flip side, social networking accounts for almost three-in-four (73%) job opportunities uncovered by executives — trumping job websites and other forms of advertising.

Based on a survey of 5,060 executives and 476 search firm consultants and corporate HR professionals, the report also reveals that executive recruiters expect search assignments to decrease 14% in the first six months of 2009 before rebounding to close the year down just 4%.

While the worst recession in decades is taking its toll on the executive employment market, ExecuNet claims it is not affecting all industries or all companies equally. The report says new leadership roles continue to be created and found by those who remain visible and connected.

“Executives who are not building sustainable relationships in their network won’t be able to revive it in time for the turnaround,” says Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet.

That is the evidence from the latest ExecuNet survey of 164 executive recruiters, with 28% confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve in the next six months – down from 36% last month.

“While recruiters’ outlook for the first half of the year has become more bearish, the jobs posted in our membership in non-cyclical industries including consumer staples, medical devices, healthcare, and government are generating more new opportunities this year than in 2008,” says Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet.

In addition, he says, recruiters do not see their business prospects changing in the next few months, as their short-term confidence also slipped.

In February, just 12% of recruiters reported being confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve during the next three months – down from 16% in January.

According to the October ExecuNet survey of 141 executive recruiters, 37% are confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve in the next six months – down from 49% in September.

“While some executive recruiters report that searches are taking more time to fill as companies grow cautious, others are working closely with clients to improve existing management teams by hiring new, proven leaders,” says Mark Anderson, President of ExecuNet.