Annual profits at one of Britain’s biggest recruiters more than halved last year and there is still no sign that the hiring market will pick up any time soon.
Hays has seen “increasingly challenging market conditions” over the past 12 months, with companies reluctant to hire and workers staying put.
“It’s normal in a downturn that clients have less roles to fill, are more picky and need more interviews to find the perfect candidate,” Dirk Hahn, chief executive of the FTSE 250 company, said. “On the other side, candidates are more cautious in a more tricky economy because it could be that they are last in and first out.”
The slowdown has been a global phenomenon, with profits down in Hays’s three largest markets: Germany,