The great CEO exodus is in full swing, with dozens of top executives leaving their posts in recent weeks. This trend is affecting a wide range of industries with companies like Bed Bath & Beyond and Pinterest among the latest. Some executives are moving on to bigger opportunities, but others are being shown the door as companies shift after the height of pandemic interruptions. "It is a tight labor market. There's still lots of openings. There's still lots of quits. I think as we start to see the overall economy slow down, we're going to start to see the labor market come with that and that might spur further change in the C-suite," Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President at executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas told "Opening Bell." 

Opening Bell

High-profile CEO Departures Shake Things Up Amid Great Resignation

for more on this. Andrew Challenger senior vice president at Challenger Gray and christmas joins us now. Andrew this. What I find interesting about this is it it isn't tied to one industry. Can you break down then why we're seeing a growing number of ceo stepped down over the better part of last year. I really want to understand the kind of the main contributors here. Yeah, you're right. It's not tied to any one single industry. And I think that points to the fact that it is tied to a lot of the change that we've seen in the overall job market the last two years. We've seen the mass exodus of employees with crit, quits, rates at records highs. And we're seeing that all the way up onto the C. Suite, whether it's people deciding to retire maybe earlier than they would have their stepping away to spend more time with their family. They've had this same censoring covid that they need to Reprioritize their thoughts and how they're spending their time. We're also seeing some C. E. O. S moving on to better opportunities as there is a lot of shake ups and changes happening across the board? It's interesting that was gonna be my next question in terms of how closely um is this tied to the tight labor market? And if we're getting the sentiment that C. E. O. S like many workers are, you know, seeing at this high labor market they can leave for better pay and better opportunities. That does in fact seem to be an element. Although it's one of many elements. Um It seems so to that end then. I wonder when we look at the pandemic for the most part it seems to be in our rear view or maybe not. Can you talk a little bit about potentially how the pandemic has really reshaped some of the expectations for C. E. O. S moving forward. Yeah I think we're still seeing strongly the effects of covid on the labor market. We're still near record high job openings. People are still quitting at a high rate. I think we're going to start to see that slow down. But companies are still trying to figure out what their organizations are going to look like in the post pandemic world when companies are working more remotely, they haven't decided how hybrid they're going to be their customers and their employees have changed their preferences over that period. So a lot of organizations are bringing in new Ceos to help deal with those changing strategies of their organizations help bring together companies that have been really separated with people working at home for two plus years. Maybe trying to get people back into the office. All of that is tied up with why I think we're seeing so many Ceos moved out or choosing to leave. That's such a good point because notably a lot of the shake ups that we're seeing the most recent have come or the bulk of them have come as the market has started to turn downward and you've had a lot of companies who have then had to reassess in terms of how lean they need to be, what position they need to switch into in order to kind of maneuver around the market downturn that we're seeing. So to that point. Do you think a ceo shakeup instills you know, more confident and confidence in investors that you know, there have new blood coming in with new ideas to kind of be able to outmaneuver kind of the market and the macro conditions that we're seeing in the greater, greater macroeconomic picture or does it have the opposite effect? Yeah, I do think right in some sense, companies were a little hunkered down because they were loath to change their ceo out the top leadership during the crisis of Covid. It was such a tumultuous time. They wanted to have somebody secure at the front of the ship. But as they're coming out of that and as boards and investors are realizing that the world has changed underneath the organizations. I think they feel confident that companies are making the choice to bring in new leaders that maybe have a skill set specifically targeted at what the post Covid world is going to look like. As we alluded to earlier. Obviously this executive exodus exodus is not tied to just one industry but it's also not tied to just one type of ceo, I mean you're seeing C. E. O. S of all calibers, major high profile names, Jeff Bezos with amazon Jack Dorsey um, with twitter, how have some some of these more high profile exits. Um, really had an impact on, on this wave that we're seeing. Yeah, right, those 22 C. E. O. S coming, founder Ceo? S coming out of the technology sector. That is a bigger trend that we're seeing that technology as a whole is maturing as a sector of the economy. We've seen a lot of founder ceos that built up huge empires over the course of 10, 20 plus years, now stepping away in ports, bringing in professional leadership. We've started to see that as a trickle down from a handful of these really big uh, founder Ceo stepping away. So I think that is having an impact, particularly on the tech sector. How long do we expect this to last? I mean, do you think this is a trend that's gonna go into next year? Yeah, I think we're going to see a continued shift in the labor market. Labor is a lagging indicator, right? We still see that the labor market generally is really highly heated. It is a tight labor market, there's still lots of openings, there's still lots of quits. I think as we start to see uh, the overall economy slowed down, we're gonna start to see the labor market come with that and that might spur further change in the C suite. So expecting continue to change throughout the end of the expecting continued change. I think that's something we have gotten used to over the better part of the last two years, and we should just continue to get used to it and you really appreciate your time and insight. Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President, Challenger, Gray and christmas incorporated.