January 2009 Sees Tepid Executive Changes While Employee Layoffs Hemorrhage

Yesterday Liberum released its latest management change numbers for January 2009. As was the case for the last number of months executive turnover has remained tepid when compared with general unemployment figures facing North American economies. Companies throughout North America are shedding employees at an alarming pace while top executives overall have so far managed to remain immune from the layoffs. January’s executive turnover totals dropped precipitously when compared with the same numbers in January 2008. According to Liberum,

CEO turnover declined 35%, CFO turnover declined 49%, all C-level (from board of director all the way down to VP level) turnover declined 47% and board of director changes declined 41%.    

Liberum continues to anticipate that executive turnover will begin to increase as we move through February and into the latter part of the Winter and early Spring.  Below are two charts that breakdown January’s CEO and CFO turnover totals by company market caps at the time of each announced executive change.