🧭 Grass Brief

Five per cent: the visible executive market, finally in figures

September 28, 20265 min readDennis Gorican

Last week we asked whether the market is turning: vacancies are rising again and hiring intentions are brightening. The obvious reaction of many jobseekers is to start writing more applications again. Before you do, it is worth looking at a figure that shows where this recovery becomes visible at all, and where it does not.

Since the very first Grass Brief, we have held one thesis: the majority of leadership positions in Switzerland are never advertised publicly, and anyone who bases their search on job ads is searching in the smallest part of the market. We have supported this thesis from practice, from how executive search works, from hundreds of accompanied transitions.

Now, for the first time, we can back it up with a hard Swiss figure.

What the Jobradar counts

x28 AG operates specialised web crawlers that capture all job ads directly on the websites of Swiss employers and recruitment agencies, not only on the big platforms, but comprehensively. The resulting Jobradar is therefore one of the most complete measurements of the visible Swiss job market.

The figures for the second quarter of 2026: of a total of around 250’000 job ads recorded, 12’418 were aimed at managers. In the first quarter there were 12’932, so the trend is slightly downward.

Let us do the maths: around five per cent of all visible job ads in Switzerland concern leadership positions. Five in a hundred. And this share covers leadership responsibility at every level, from team leader in retail to executive board. The segment in which the readers of this brief typically move, senior management, executive board, board of directors, is a subset of this subset.

What this figure means, and what it does not

First, the honest context. Job ads are not the same as appointments: positions are also filled without being advertised, and not every ad leads to a hire. The category “managers” is broader than what this brief understands by senior level. And a single quarter is a snapshot.

But that is exactly why the figure is so revealing. It describes the upper limit of the visible market. Even if you read every single one of the 12’418 ads in a quarter, you would have seen the smaller part of the actual movement at leadership level. The FSO’s five-year review counted around 300’000 newly created jobs in the last five years alone, and the baby boomer retirement wave frees up leadership positions year after year, most of which are filled internally, through networks or through search mandates, long before an ad would be created.

On top of that comes the density of competition in the visible segment. As we have reported several times, applications per job ad have risen by as much as 50 per cent. Five per cent of the ads, besieged by a growing share of jobseekers: that is the arithmetic behind the experience many of our clients have before they come to us. Eighty applications, three replies, zero interviews. Not because their profile is weak. But because they are queuing in the narrowest corridor of the market.

The arithmetic of the hidden market

Let us turn the calculation around. If the visible leadership market accounts for five per cent of the ads and only a fraction of that concerns the senior segment, then the vast majority of relevant movement takes place elsewhere: in internal successions, in search mandates that are never published, in conversations that precede a vacancy, and in positions created for a convincing person.

This part of the market has no search mask. Nor does it have an apply button. Its access route is people: former colleagues with hiring responsibility, board members, trusted headhunters, industry contacts who know about a change before it becomes official. This is exactly what the Right 100 method we work with exists for: a curated group of a hundred people, cultivated systematically, instead of a thousand contacts that remain a database.

The five-per-cent figure also answers the question that arises after last week: “The market is turning, should I write more applications again now?” The answer is yes, selectively. A suitable job ad is a real opportunity, and the 12’418 are not zero. But the weighting of your own time should mirror the weighting of the market. Anyone who invests eighty per cent of their search time in five per cent of the market has turned the proportions upside down. And when the recovery comes, it arrives first where positions are filled without an ad: with the people who were already in conversation.

What else the Jobradar shows

One side finding deserves mention because it confirms our previous reporting. The industries with the most ads in the second quarter: healthcare in first place, with a rising trend, followed by construction and retail. The shift of visible demand away from office, IT and finance professions, which we described in the senior paradox and in the labour market review, also shows up in this independent data source.

For executives from the classic management fields, this means: the visible market is not only small, it is also smallest precisely where most of them come from. One more reason to take the main channel seriously.

The conclusion

We have often described the hidden job market in this brief as practical experience. Now it can be presented as a calculation: around 250’000 visible ads per quarter, five per cent of them with leadership responsibility, a fraction of those at senior level, fought over by a growing number of applicants. Everything else, the larger part of the market, moves through relationships.

The consequence is not new. But it now has a number: anyone who works only the visible market is competing for five per cent. Anyone who cultivates their hundred people has access to the rest.

Sources: x28 AG, Swiss Jobradar, Q2 2026 (around 250’000 job ads recorded, of which 12’418 for managers; Q1: 12’932; leading industries: healthcare, construction, retail); FSO, employment barometer Q2 2026 and five-year labour market review (around 300’000 new jobs 2020 to 2025); JobCloud, Q2 2026 labour market update (applications per job ad up by as much as 50%); Grass Brief archive: The turnaround?, The Right 100, senior paradox, 300’000 new jobs.