As public sector executive vacancies plunge, senior executives will struggle to find similar positions in the private sector, according to executive search firm InterExec.

The firm says that it has seen senior executive vacancies in the public sector drop by more than two thirds in the three months from February to May.

Kit Scott Brown, chief executive of InterExec, says: “Many senior executives who have had a lifetime in the public-funded sector are not going to have access to private sector positions which are the exclusive domain of headhunters. These positions are almost never advertised and it is highly unlikely that an executive who is currently employed in the public sector will ever get to hear about them.”