The State of Hiring: A Year in Review for Chief Financial Officers in the Korn Ferry 1000

Improvements in the economy and recovery in shareholder value combined to increase the opportunities for job movement among chief financial officers (CFOs). Korn Ferry tracks the CFOs of the largest 1,000 U.S. based companies, and in 2013 the turnover rate reached its highest level in four years at 16.4%. Compared to the prior year, CFO hires in the KF1000 increased by 16.3%, and are up 36.7% from 2010.

A disproportionate amount of that turnover happened in the 500 largest of those companies, where 58.2% of the changes took place. In terms of sectors, most of the hiring happened in Industrial, Financial Services, Technology, Energy, and Healthcare/Life Sciences—all of which recorded their highest turnover rates in the prior four years.

There were also an unprecedented number of retirements in 2013, amounting to 36% of departures, compared to the historical average of about 23%.