CEO turnover up again

So far this year, 566 CEOs have vacated their positions, up from 506 at the same time last year, according to a Chicago-based research group.

In May 2010 alone, 125 CEOs left their companies' top position, the most since July 2009. John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, suggests the trend may continue.

“Companies appear to have throttled back significantly on job-cut activity, but this does not mean that the situation is stabilizing at the top of organizations,” Challenger said in a release. “We may continue to see heavy CEO turnover throughout the summer.”

The two most impacted industries have been all over the news in the past eighteen months, as health care and the government/non-profit sector rank one and two in CEO turnover activity.

Of the 125 departures in May, two of the most notable came from the telecommunications industry, as John Rooney retired from U.S. Cellular, and Robert Dotson resigned from T-Mobile.