Executive Search Firm Revenue Benchmark

Average Executive Search Firm Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every executive search firm with paid employees, from a boutique with a few partners to the offices of global search firms, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of offices gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,957,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $12.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 6,437 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,957,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Executive Search Services, NAICS 561312. The category covers executive search firms recruiting for executive and senior management positions, on retained or contingency terms. Employment placement agencies and temporary help services are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5613: 561311 Employment Placement Agencies; 561320 Temporary Help Services; 561330 Professional Employer Organizations. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort

Employment Services, NAICS 5613, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 48.6 to 69.1 percent. This benchmark covers Employment Services, NAICS 5613, as a whole, and this category accounts for 6,437 of the 56,763 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Executive Search Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 44.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a high share because search consultants, researchers and associates are the product and compensation in the field is high.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and in a partner-owned boutique the partners' own searches produce revenue that appears nowhere in the payroll figure.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Executive Search Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 6.7 people, and the industry averaged 1.0 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a few consultants with research and support staff, and a global firm contributes each office separately.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Executive Search Firm: what retained fees, hiring cycles and partner relationships do to the average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Retained or contingency? Retained search brings staged fees for an exclusive assignment whatever the outcome, while contingency work pays only on placement and competes with other recruiters. The model decides revenue certainty and the depth of work a firm can afford.
• Which industries and functions? Firms specializing in technology, healthcare, finance or nonprofit leadership follow the hiring cycles of those sectors, and a downturn in one can empty a boutique's pipeline. Specialization shapes both fees and risk.
• How is the fee set? Fees commonly relate to the compensation of the role filled, so a firm placing senior executives earns more per search than one filling middle management. Revenue per search is not published and varies with the level of the roles.
• How much depends on the partners? Client relationships usually belong to individual partners, and a partner's departure can take clients and revenue with it. Partner concentration is a central risk invisible in an average.
• Where do the candidates come from? Research teams, networks and databases are the engine of a search, and their cost is paid whether or not a search closes. The research capacity behind a firm's revenue does not appear in receipts.
• What happens when a placement fails? Replacement periods require a firm to redo a search or refund part of the fee if a placed executive leaves early, so revenue booked at completion can partly reverse. Placement durability is a quality measure the benchmark cannot show.