If you’ve ever dreamed of being in an elite C-suite position, you’ll find the latest data from LinkedIn interesting. The professional networking site has spent several years examining the hiring patterns for 500,000 C-suite-level positions between 2019 and the end of 2022. It found that during those years, the hiring of certain C-suite positions has skyrocketed.
And while the coveted chief executive officer role is nowhere to be seen on the list, companies are actively seeking out other C-suite hires. Here are the 10 C-suite positions that have seen the largest growth in hires since 2019:
- Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer: 168.9%
- Chief Delivery Officer: 165.6%
- Chief People Officer: 144.3%
- Chief Growth Officer: 117.5%
- Chief Revenue Officer: 76.3%
- Chief Legal Officer: 72.0%
- Chief Program Officer: 60.3%
- Chief Commercial Officer: 59.6%
- Chief Underwriting Officer: 53.2%
- Chief Human Resources Officer: 50.1%
Out of all the C-suite positions in the list, the one that is most heartening to see is that of the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. However, while that particular role led the pack with the highest growth over the past four years—at 168.9%—LinkedIn notes that in 2022, the final year of its analysis, the number of hires for Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers actually declined 4.5%. (All other C-suite positions in the list continued to rise.)
The reason? LinkedIn cites Essence magazine’s research into the decline, which determined that fears of a recession were causing companies to take a harder look at bottom lines and thus “many have quietly divested from commitments to diversity and inclusion.” A Harvard Business Review survey also noted that in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in 2020, “much was promised, but little was delivered” in regards to companies’ diversity programs.
LinkedIn says “C-suite titles with the fastest hiring growth tend to oversee areas where organizations want to get better in a hurry.” The platform looked at 500,000 C-suite hires in the United States and notes that only C-suite titles with at least 50 hires in 2022 were analyzed.
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