Demand for executives in US fell off a bit in third quarter

A cooling economy may be cooling the demand for executives. An executive-resource arm of the Arthur Young accounting and consulting firm reports a dip of 5 percent in the third quarter, compared with the same period last year, in demand for executives.

Arthur Young official Edwin S. Mruk notes: ''The business community will welcome this cooling of the executive job market. Over the next three months, as companies make bonus decisions for 1984 and do their salary planning for 1985, they will feel less pressure to grant very high pay increases.''

Demand for executives varies from industry to industry. The report says it is highest in the financial services sector (up 13 percent over the same period last year) and in the general service area (no change from last year). Demand for executives in manufacturing dropped 14 percent.