Fears of a world economic slump have receded among chiefexecutive officers, who are instead preoccupied with hiring and retaining top employees, an annualsurvey found.

Global CEOs polled by the Conference Board, a New York-basedresearcher, ranked a global recession as their 19th concern out of28 choices, down from being the top worry a year earlier. Failureto attract and retain talent was the No. 1concern, followed by creating new business models and cash-flowvolatility, according to the C-Suite Challenge survey, conductedfrom September to November.

The shift in concerns from a cold economy to a hotone mirrors an upswing in global growth and declines inunemployment, including the lowest level in the U.S. since 2000 andan eight-year low in the euro-area. Other major worriesinclude new competitors, developing leaders and cybersecurity,while Brexit, terrorism and America’s departure from the Parisclimate accord were at the bottom of the list.

“A big change from last year’s survey was factors that CEOscan’t control are further down on the list and ones that they cancontrol are further up,” Conference Board chief economist Bart vanArk, a co-author of the report, said in an interview.

The report, out Thursday, is based on responses from 561 CEOsand 475 other senior executives from more than 50 countries.Formerly called the CEO Challenge, the survey began in 1999 and wasexpanded this year to include other officials such as chieffinancial officers and chief information officers.

While Brexit was a relatively low concern globally, it was No. 8among CEOs in Europe, unchanged from the previous year. U.S. CEOsalso expressed more concern about declining trust in political andpolicy institutions in America.

Among other issues, concern about income inequality rose toseventh from 18th among global chiefs. Threats to global tradejumped to eighth worldwide from 15th, as the Trump administrationwithdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and consideredpulling out of Nafta.

CEOs’ top concerns

Source: The Conference Board’s C-Suite Challenge2018

Above all, though, companies are trying to cope with a tightlabor market and find workers with needed skills.

“They are trying to get the talent piece right,” said RebeccaRay, another co-author and an executive vice president at theConference Board.

One way to deal with the issue is to tap temporary or freelanceworkers, according to the report. In one portion of the survey,about 80 percent of chief human resources officers said they agreewith the statement that the share of contingent workers andfreelancers will increase. The use of automation and robots is alsolikely to rise, according to the survey.

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