Until now, executives have been rather privileged in terms of employment compared to other categories.
But the pandemic has reshuffled the cards.
According to a study by Apec, executives in the private sector "feel more and more threatened by the risk of dismissal".
They were nearly a quarter of them (24%) feeding this concern in December when they were only 19% to fear a dismissal in September.
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From now on, more and more executives want to push back while waiting for the end of the crisis.
Almost six in ten executives (57%) consider it “risky” to change companies.
"There is growing concern about the risk of losing one's job and the consequences in this climate of crisis of a job loss," said Gilles Gateau, general manager of the Association for the employment of executives (Apec).
This fear of dismissal is stronger among young executives (under 35), of whom nearly three in ten (28% in December, against 16% in September) feel threatened.
This concern is also shared by a quarter of older managers (55 and over).
Difficulties in finding a new job
In addition, for unemployed executives, the job search is becoming more and more difficult.
They are 76% to think so because of "successive confinements" and "uncertainty" on "the evolution of the health crisis", notes the Apec.
The executives “are also more and more numerous” (23%, against 19%) “to work in a company having laid off employees or announced future layoffs since the beginning of the pandemic.
This is particularly the case in the industrial sector.
There are still some positive points.
Despite the crisis, "recruitment projects still materialized at the end of 2020 in companies: 10% of them" recruited at least one executive in the fourth quarter ", according to the study, even if 40% of companies who intended to recruit an executive in 2020 have "canceled this project" or "postponed it to 2021."
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In total, the number of executive job offers published on the Apec site fell by 29% in 2020 compared to the previous year, "with very strong disparities depending on the sector of activity" with spectacular falls in the automotive and aeronautics industry (-50%) but also, a little more surprising in the pharmaceutical industry (-17%).