UK recruiter Hays cutting more costs as profit drops on hiring slowdown
Adds shares in paragraph 2, CEO quotes in paragraph 3 &4, comments on current trading in paragraph 8,
Aug 22 (Reuters) -British recruiter Hays HAYS.L said it would make further cost cuts after reporting a 47% drop in annual profit on Thursday due to the slowdown in the jobs market as economic and political uncertainty weighed on decision making.
Shares in the FTSE mid-cap recruiter initially dropped but by 0834 GMT were up 1.4% as the results were no worse than anticipated following a profit warning earlier in the year.
"We saw increasingly challenging market conditions through FY24 in both Perm and Temp, with low confidence levels and longer-than-normal 'time-to-hire', Hays CEO Dirk Hahn said in a statement.
"Our profitability was significantly impacted, including our three largest markets of Germany, Australia and the UK," Hahn added.
Low confidence levels among both job seekers and employers have extended the time taken to fill vacant positions, dealing a blow to recruiters' profits, with elections in multiple countries adding to their woes.
Hays has been closing backend offices, adjusting headcount to meet current demand levels and shutting down unprofitable businesses to mitigate the impact of sluggish market conditions.
Hahn said ongoing efficiency actions will deliver a further about 30 million pound ($39.25 million) annual cost savings by fiscal year 2027.
Hays said trading in July and August has been in line with its expectations but it was too early to assess trends for September, usually a key trading month in the quarter.
The company, which focuses largely on hiring for white-collar roles, reported operating profit on a like-for-like basis of 105.1 million pounds for the full-year ended June 30, down from 197 million a year earlier but in line with analysts' average expectations.
Earlier this month, smaller peer Robert Walters RWA.L reported a first-half loss amid sluggish hiring, while PageGroup PAGE.L reported a more than 50% profit drop.
Official data on Wednesday showed U.S. employers added far fewer jobs than originally reported in the year through March, underscoring the growing concerns about the health of the labour market in the U.S.
($1 = 0.7643 pounds)
Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Elaine Hardcastle
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