Good news and bad news for CEOs. The level of CEO turnover has eased back slightly but it's still insecure times for the top brass, according to the latest Booz Allen Hamilton study.

CEO turnover rate slipped slightly to 14.3 per cent but CEOs are still more likely to be ejected from office than not.

The study also found that boardroom infighting was taking its toll on CEOs. The proportion of CEOs leaving because of conflicts on the board increased from 2 per cent in 1995 to 11 per cent in 2004-2006.

The study also found that boards are getting more twitchy. Once upon a time, they would sack the CEO for proven underperformance. Now they're getting rid of them because of concerns about underperformance, or expectations of future underperformance.

Still, let's not get too choked up. CEOs still do pretty well. They're pay has increased more than 300 per cent over the last 10 years, and they get paid about 250 times the amount paid to the average worker, says Professor Jerry Newman of the UB Jacobs School of Management.