Turnover of
chief financial officers spiked 20 percent in the second quarter compared with
the first quarter, with a total of 646 executives shuffling in, out or around
large U.S. companies, up from 536 in the first quarter.
Churn levels were consistently high: The
total number of CFOs who joined, left, resigned, retired or changed positions
internally exceeded 200 for the past three consecutive months—a first since
Liberum Research began tracking the data in 2005.
“Keep in mind that the second quarter
includes both proxy season and quarterly earnings,” says Liberum senior vice
president Richard Jacovitz, who explained that the second quarter is typically
the period with the highest level of churn each year.
“There are exceptions—when the economy
tanks or something major takes place,” Jacovitz says. But barring those events,
he said he expects the overall level of management change to drop over the next
few months.
The total level of CFO churn was down 1.5
percent from the same period last year, when the second quarter saw an all-time
high of 656 shuffles. June turnover, at 202, remained high, but a slowdown
appears to have begun: The quarter began with a near-high 233 CFO management
changes in April and slowed to 211 in May.
In fact, the number of CFO job changes in
June dropped in every category with the exception of new hires, which increased
19 percent, to 82, from 69 in May.
Filed by Tara Kalwarsk of Financial Week, a sister
publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail
editors@workforce.com.