Survey Says Execs’ Pay Is Up

The salaries of managers and executives at U.S. firms are rising in spite of the recent surge in job cuts, a new report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said.

Challenger said the report indicated companies are looking beyond the current slowdown toward an improvement in the economy.

In the April-June quarter of this year, 91% of job-seeking managers and executives received “equivalent or better” salaries in new positions, compared with 87.8% in the same period a year ago, the report showed.

“What it suggests is that even though the economy is slowing, there is still an immense amount of strength out there,” said John Challenger, chief executive at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The report was based on data compiled in the Challenger job market index, a quarterly survey of 3,000 discharged executives.