Australia has been one of the first countries to emerge out of the recession, but it seems that its top management and chiefs bore the brunt of it really bad, as a record bosses around the country had to leave their jobs behind. The country's chief executive turnover rose to a record 22%.

40% of chief executive who had bid farewell to their posts in 2008 were from Australia's 224 largest firms, which is a substantial rise from the 12% who had been put out of work in 2007. The figures have been revealed after an extensive analysis by management consultancy Booz & Co.

Greater dismissals were seen among top management executives of financial service providers and listed property trusts, revealed the survey, which is being seen as a direct result of these sectors getting hit very hard because of the financial crisis made worse by the credit-crunch.

Among the high-profile executive who had to go away from their services were Challenger Financial Group Chief Mike Tilley, ex-Head of Insurance Australia Group Michael Hawk, Michael King of MFS and Andrew Scott of Centro.