Every statistic ETHOSLINK cites in its published analysis, in one place — 33 figures drawn from 19 pieces of original research and commentary. Each figure names its source and links to the analysis it came from. Figures labelled ETHOSLINK analysis are our own derivations from the cited underlying data, not primary research.
Sources include the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Census Bureau, NBER, SHRM, PwC, Gartner, Forrester, DDI, AlixPartners, Altrata, FTI Consulting, and Wharton. This page is regenerated whenever new analysis is published; the update date above reflects the last build.
Executive Search
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 5× | First-year total compensation: the US Department of Labor's estimate of executive mis-hire exposure. For a $250K role, that is $1.25M — against a fee difference between models of roughly $20K. Retained vs. Contingency Search: What It Actually Costs You | US Department of Labor · SHRM |
| $240K | True cost of a bad hire per employee when including productivity loss, damaged relationships, and full replacement cost — before the exec-level multiplier. The Search Fee Is Not the Risk. The Mis-Hire Is. | SHRM · US Department of Labor |
| 89% / 11% | 89% of new-hire failures trace to attitude — coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, temperament. 11% trace to technical competence. 46% of new hires are failed hires within 18 months; only 19% are unequivocal successes. The 11% Résumé: You Pay 20% More for the Candidate You Know Least About | Leadership IQ · Hiring for Attitude · 20,000+ new hires |
| 18–20% | The pay premium external hires command over internal promotes moving into the same jobs — while receiving significantly lower performance evaluations for their first two years and exiting at higher rates. The 11% Résumé: You Pay 20% More for the Candidate You Know Least About | Matthew Bidwell, Wharton · "Paying More to Get Less," Administrative Science Quarterly |
| 920 | CEO exits announced in H1 2026 — down 26% year over year as boards prioritize stability. Meanwhile CEO succession planning ranks as the #1 board practice needing improvement in 2026. Fewer seats are opening, and the pipeline behind them is admittedly thin. The 11% Résumé: You Pay 20% More for the Candidate You Know Least About | Challenger, Gray & Christmas (July 2026) · NACD 2026 Governance Outlook |
| 7.4M / 5.3M / 5.4M | Job openings, hires, and total separations, June 2026. Openings rate 4.4%, hires rate 3.4%, separations rate 3.4%. Quits were 3.2 million (2.0%); layoffs and discharges 1.8 million (1.1%). Separations exceeded hires by roughly 100,000. The Standstill Market: 7.4 Million Open Seats and Nobody Is Moving | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · JOLTS, June 2026 (released Aug. 4, 2026) |
| 0.9% | Monthly quits rate in finance and insurance, June 2026 — down from 1.3% in June 2025, a roughly 31% decline in voluntary movement. Information fell from 1.5% to 1.1%. Manufacturing sits at 1.5%. The sectors that supply mid-market executives are the least mobile in the economy. The Standstill Market: 7.4 Million Open Seats and Nobody Is Moving | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · JOLTS Table 4, June 2026 |
| $15,000 | Median cost-per-hire for an executive position in 2026 — up from $10,600 in 2025, $8,800 in 2022, and $5,000 in 2017. Nonexecutive cost-per-hire over the same period: $1,300, essentially flat since 2017. The Unmeasured Hire: Executive Cost-per-Hire Jumped 42% in a Year | SHRM · 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking (n=4,657) |
| 3.1× → 11.5× | ETHOSLINK analysis of SHRM's benchmarking series: the ratio of executive to nonexecutive cost-per-hire, 2017 versus 2026. Directional — medians drawn from different survey waves and respondent bases. The Unmeasured Hire: Executive Cost-per-Hire Jumped 42% in a Year | Derived from SHRM 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking |
| 56–90 hrs | of internal team time per hire at 2026 volumes — roughly double the pre-2022 workload. At leadership level, priced at loaded executive rates, that's $15K–$30K of invisible internal spend before the seat is even filled. Why You Can't Find the Right Person: The Hiring Math Nobody Runs | ETHOSLINK analysis · Ashby 2026 Talent Trends data |
Private Equity
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 36% → 7% | Share of PE portfolio companies deploying AI across use cases (36%) versus those operating it at enterprise scale (7%). 95% of funds report AI initiatives meeting or exceeding their original business case — while 35% name talent as the primary constraint to scaling adoption. Your AI Operating Partner Is Not Your Fractional CAIO | FTI Consulting · 2026 Private Equity AI Radar · 200 fund and operating leaders |
| 74% | Share of US portfolio company leadership team roles filled through external appointments (67% in the UK) — in sharp contrast to publicly listed companies, which favor internal promotion. From a study of 11,500+ US and UK portfolio companies and 60,000 portfolio company executives. The External Default: Three-Quarters of Portfolio Leadership Is Bought, Not Built | Altrata · Portfolio Company Talent 2026 (February 2026) |
| 68% / 5.8 yrs | 68% of US and UK portfolio companies hire at least one leadership team member every year, with CFO the most frequently hired role — while US portfolio company CEO tenure averages 5.8 years, closely matching the five-to-six year hold. Stability at the top, continuous replacement below it. The External Default: Three-Quarters of Portfolio Leadership Is Bought, Not Built | Altrata · Portfolio Company Talent 2026 |
| 65% | of private equity firms report CEO turnover during the holding period. Only 9% say they rarely replace CEOs. 83% of PE executives say unplanned CEO turnover lengthens the hold; nearly half say it reduces returns. The Year-Two CEO Exit: PE's Most Expensive Pattern Is a Fit Failure, Not a Talent Failure | AlixPartners 11th Annual PE Leadership Survey · March 2026 |
| ~3 pts | of IRR: the approximate cost of extending a five-year, 2.2× deal by one year to resolve a leadership failure — before severance, the replacement search fee, and the stalled execution are counted. The Year-Two CEO Exit: PE's Most Expensive Pattern Is a Fit Failure, Not a Talent Failure | ETHOSLINK analysis · AlixPartners survey data |
Advisory
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 62% | Average wage premium commanded by workers with AI skills in 2026, up from 57% in 2025. It ranges as high as 118% in consumer markets and as low as 16% in government. Jobs requiring specific AI skills grew 69% against 9% for the overall jobs market — roughly eight times faster. Pay the Premium or Rent the Judgment: The Math on Your First AI Leadership Hire | PwC · 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer · 1bn+ job ads, 27 countries |
| $111,600 | ETHOSLINK worked example: PwC's 62% AI wage premium applied to a $180,000 mid-market senior leadership base. Directional — a global cross-level average applied to a single US executive seat, for magnitude rather than benchmarking. Pay the Premium or Rent the Judgment: The Math on Your First AI Leadership Hire | ETHOSLINK analysis of PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer |
| 82% / 26% | 82% of mid-market companies have AI in production or widespread use. 26% say it is scaled and governed enterprise-wide. 42% have a formal AI policy with actively enforced controls; 53% have full visibility into AI tool usage. 96% Expect AI Returns. 42% Have Already Had an Incident. | Netrio · Censuswide · 401 U.S. IT leaders, 200–5,000 employees · June 2026 |
| 52% → 10% | Security/privacy/compliance (19%), data readiness (17%) and integration complexity (16%) together account for 52% of named barriers to scaling AI. "Lack of internal expertise" — the condition that produces all three — was ranked last at 10%. 96% Expect AI Returns. 42% Have Already Had an Incident. | Netrio / Censuswide barrier rankings · ETHOSLINK analysis |
| 96% vs 42% | 96% are confident of measurable AI ROI within 24 months. 42% have already had a confirmed AI security incident, and 31% more a near-miss. The same companies, the same year — one number a forecast, the other a fact. 96% Expect AI Returns. 42% Have Already Had an Incident. | Netrio · Censuswide · June 2026 |
Market Analysis
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 113% | Increase in cost-per-hire for executive roles since 2017. Average cost-per-hire across all roles is now $5,475 — up from $4,700 in prior benchmarks. The 2026 State of Hiring: What the Numbers Actually Say | SHRM Recruiting Executives Benchmarking 2025 |
| 70% | Of recruiters report difficulty finding candidates with the right skills in 2026 — skills-based hiring is the declared top priority, yet actual implementation remains low. The 2026 State of Hiring: What the Numbers Actually Say | Totaljobs Recruiter Survey 2026 |
| $98 / day | Per open role in measurable productivity loss. The average time-to-fill is 44 days; nearly 40% of senior leadership searches run past 90 days. The 2026 State of Hiring: What the Numbers Actually Say | HiredAI 2026 · LinkedIn / Mitratech 2026 |
| $98 | Lost per day per open role in measurable productivity — before counting strategic drag, team attrition, or deferred revenue. The Empty Seat: What an Open Leadership Role Is Costing You Every Day | HiredAI 2026 · SHRM Benchmarking |
AI Leadership
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 88% | of AI pilots never reach production. The failure mode is almost always the same: a strategy document was delivered, a pilot was scoped from it, and no named executive was accountable after the recommendations were made. That is the exact structure a consultant produces, and the exact gap a fractional head of AI is retained to close. AI Consultant vs. Fractional Head of AI: The Honest Comparison | Forrester · Anaconda · 2026 Adoption Research |
| 1 in 4 | companies now have a Chief AI Officer, and 66% of executives expect most companies to hire one within two years. The mid-market question is not whether the function arrives — it is whether it arrives at $400,000 full-time or 8–20 senior hours a week. What a Fractional CAIO Actually Does in a 200-Person Manufacturer | IBM CAIO Survey · 2025 |
| $350K–$450K | First-year cash compensation for a full-time Chief AI Officer at mid-market and enterprise scale. Fully loaded — benefits, equity, search fee, ramp — the actual first-year commitment is well above that band. What a Fractional Chief AI Officer Costs (and What You're Actually Buying) | Market comp data · ETHOSLINK · 2026 |
Leadership Pipeline
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ~32% | Fewer first-line manager seats needed to run the same headcount, as average span of control moves from 8.2 (Gallup, 2013) to 12.1 (2025). Manager headcount is already down 6.1% since May 2022; executive roles down 4.6%. The Missing Middle Rung: Flattening Books the Saving Now and the Shortage Later | Gallup · Live Data Technologies · ETHOSLINK analysis |
| 75% vs 49% | Three-quarters of organizations intend to promote from within. Internal candidates can actually fill fewer than half of critical roles immediately, and only 20% of HR leaders say they have ready successors for their most critical seats. The Missing Middle Rung: Flattening Books the Saving Now and the Shortage Later | DDI Global Leadership Forecast |
| $16,100 → $12,500 | Rising wages added about $16,100 to expected lifetime earnings between 2000 and 2016. Deteriorating career progression erased nearly $12,500 of it — about 78% of the gain — while headline indicators kept improving. The Missing Middle Rung: Flattening Books the Saving Now and the Shortage Later | Yildirim et al. · NBER w32655 · 18M+ résumés |
AI & Advisory
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 18% / 78% | Firm-weighted AI adoption (Census BTOS, Dec. 2025) versus employment-weighted AI adoption (Atlanta Fed SBU, Nov. 2025). Individual-level work use of generative AI sits at 41% (RPS, Nov. 2025). Same period. Three different denominators. 18% or 78%? Both AI Adoption Numbers Are Real. Only One Describes Your Company. | Federal Reserve Board · FEDS Note · Allen, April 3, 2026 |
| 159% | The jump in reported manufacturing AI adoption when the Census question widened from "producing goods or services" to "any business function" — 7.5 percentage points. Professional services, where the tool and the product are closer together, jumped 47%. 18% or 78%? Both AI Adoption Numbers Are Real. Only One Describes Your Company. | U.S. Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey, via Federal Reserve FEDS Note (April 2026) |
Revenue Operations
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 40–60% | Of deals in the average B2B pipeline are lost to "no decision" — not to a competitor, not to budget, but to the buyer choosing inaction. This is a revenue system failure, not a sales execution failure. Your Pipeline Isn't Broken. Your Revenue System Is. | Protiviti 2026 |
Citing this page
These figures may be quoted with attribution to the original source named in each row. Where you cite an ETHOSLINK derivation, please attribute it as ETHOSLINK analysis and link to https://ethoslinkadvisory.com/data/. If a source has published newer data than what appears here, the original source governs.