Recruiter Hays warns global slump in hirings will halve its profits

about 13 hours ago

A slump in hiring activity at businesses around the world means profits will more than halve at Hays, the global recruitment company has warned, sending its shares down more than 10%.Demand for new permanent staff has fallen sharply, reflecting “low levels of client and candidate confidence as a result of macroeconomic uncertainty”, Hays told investors in an unscheduled update.The recruiter, which finds workers across the world for corporations such as Airbus and Sony, now expects its pre-exceptional operating profit to be about £45m for its current financial year, compared with City expectations of £56.4m.Last year Hays reported a profit of £105.

1m.Analysts at the broker RBC Capital Markets said in a note: “This is not wholly unsurprising given the enhanced macro-political uncertainty, and the fact that new job inflow is reducing … it is clear that a recovery is unlikely anytime soon.”Hays said it expected like-for-like net fees to be down 9% in the final quarter of its financial year.Fees from the permanent job market were expected to drop by 14%, with temporary and contracting work down 5%.Shares in Hays fell by as much as 20% in early trading on Thursday, sending it to the bottom of the FTSE 250 index of medium-sized companies and to its lowest level in 13 years.

The shares pared back the loss over the course of the morning, trading down 11% by midday.The warning also pushed shares in the rival recruiter PageGroup, which generates just under three-quarters of its fees from permanent hiring, down by 8%.Shares in its Dutch rival Randstad also dropped by 4% in early trading.Hays said that in Germany, which made up about two-thirds of the company’s operating profit in 2024, temporary hiring was also affected because of its high exposure to the car industry.The sector was already struggling, with profit warnings at BMW and Mercedes and moves to shut factories at Volkswagen, and has been hit further this year by the uncertainty around US trade tariffs.

Hays said it expected net fees to drop 13% in the UK and Ireland, and by 9% in Australia and New Zealand.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThis month, official figures showed that more than 250,000 jobs have been lost in Britain since Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.Separate figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in the three months to April, up from 4.5% in the previous three-month period, to reach the highest level since July 2021.

politicsSee all

Keir Starmer needs to crack down on misconduct in politics, John Major says

Keir Starmer needs to reset standards in public life and bring in proper sanctions before trust in the UK system is damaged beyond salvage, John Major has said.The former Conservative prime minister said proposals for an ethics commission appeared to be “in the long grass” but No 10 could strengthen the Nolan principles of public life and make sure there was punishment for misconduct within the standards framework.In a speech to mark the 30th anniversary of the Nolan principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership, which Major brought in as prime minister, he said the system was still a good one but needed to be more enforceable.With No 10 rethinking the idea of setting up a new ethics commission, as promised in the Labour manifesto, Major said it was time for action to improve the system.“It has been our past practice to offer guidance on good conduct, and trust it will be delivered

about 14 hours ago

‘He just told me lies to have sex with a teenage girl’: Natalie Fleet MP on grooming, statutory rape and fighting back

At 15, she began seeing an older man and conceived her beloved daughter. It was years before she properly understood it as abuse. Now she is working tirelessly in parliament for other survivorsNatalie Fleet is nervous about this interview. Her assistant has warned me and Fleet tells me several times, before and during. “I just feel sick,” she says

about 17 hours ago

Keir Starmer to chair emergency Cobra meeting to discuss Israel-Iran conflict

The UK government will have to sign off on the US use of its Diego Garcia base in any bombing raid on Iran, it has emerged, as ministers gathered to discuss a range of scenarios amid further increasing tensions in the region.The prime minster, Sir Keir Starmer, chaired an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s response to the crisis in the Middle East which could escalate further should the US enter the conflict between Israel and Iran.After the prime minister landed back in Britain following the G7 summit in Canada, he brought together ministers and senior officials to update the UK’s response beyond urging de-escalation.But with Donald Trump still not revealing what action he may take, the UK government is working on a series of options dependent on whether the US pursues military action, and if it asks allies for support at any stage.One key issue for the UK would be whether to give permission for the US to fly B-2 stealth bombers from the Diego Garcia airbase in the Indian Ocean to attack Iran’s nuclear enrichment site, which is between 80 and 90 metres inside a mountain at Fordow

1 day ago

UK benefits system could collapse if payments are not cut, Liz Kendall says

Britain’s benefits system faces collapse without cuts to disability payments, Liz Kendall has said, as the government published plans that put it on a collision course with dozens of angry Labour MPs.Kendall published her welfare reform bill on Wednesday, confirming it would lead to benefit cuts for 950,000 people by 2030. She said the country’s £326bn social security net might cease to exist if costs continued to escalate.The bill includes several concessions designed to win over fractious Labour MPs as ministers look to ward off the biggest rebellion of Keir Starmer’s premiership. But the efforts were met with hostility by many in the party, who said they still intended to vote against the bill next month

1 day ago

DWP says transitional payments scheme for those losing Pip ‘one of most generous ever’ – UK politics live

The Department for Work and Pensions has now published the text of the universal credit and personal independence payments bill. It runs to 16 pages, and it’s here.Here are the explanatory notes.And there are two impact assessments – here and here.In its news release, the DWP confirms that the plans include a three-month transitional payment for people who are losing the personal independence payment

1 day ago

The Philpster exhausts his repertoire with return to Rwanda at PMQs | John Crace

Thoughts and prayers with Alex Burghart. Not so long ago, the shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster was allowed out by Kemi Badenoch to stand in for her at prime minister’s questions when Keir Starmer was otherwise engaged. Though this may be a memory Alex wishes to forget. It wasn’t his finest hour. Angela Rayner ran rings around him without even breaking sweat

1 day ago

societySee all