- Hays revealed it reduced staff levels by 5% in the first three months of 2024
- Meanwhile, Robert Walters reduced its total workforce by 4%, to 3,812
Hays and Robert Walters have become the latest recruiters to make further job cuts amid a challenging global labor market.
Hays revealed it cut staff levels by 5 per cent in the first three months of 2024, having cut 1,150 roles last year to save money.
Meanwhile, Robert Walters reduced its workforce by 4 percent to 3,812, meaning it has almost 600 fewer employees than at the end of March 2023.
Layoffs: Hays and Robert Walters have become the latest recruiters to make further job cuts amid a challenging global labor market
Both companies have been hit by a sharp drop in revenue from temporary and permanent hiring, as well as weaker performances in most of the markets where they operate, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In the UK and Ireland, Hays saw net commissions fall by 16 per cent on a like-for-like basis, driven by a massive drop in commissions from the technology sector.
Following a pandemic-induced hiring surge, tech companies have carried out mass layoffs over the past two years as the absence of lockdown restrictions has led to people spending more time outdoors.
They have also cut jobs in response to central banks raising interest rates to tame inflation, which began to soar in 2022 due to travel restrictions and rising oil and gas prices.
Analysts expect interest rates in major economies to fall this year, but employers remain cautious given the uncertain economic backdrop.
Toby Fowlston, chief executive of Robert Walters, said: “The overall environment remains one in which client and candidate confidence is at low levels, which we expect will continue to be a headwind to revenue growth in the short term”.
Job cuts: Recruiter Hays revealed it cut staff levels by 5 per cent in the first three months of 2024, after cutting 1,150 roles last year to save money.
The trading updates from Hays and Robert Walters come as the Office for National Statistics reported that the UK unemployment rate rose to 4.2 per cent in the three months to February.
It also comes a day after recruiter PageGroup said it reduced its workforce by 100 in the first quarter of this year.
PageGroup has cut more than 1,300 positions since its staff peaked at 7,071 in the third quarter of 2022.
The Surrey-based company saw its gross profits fall 12.8 per cent to £219.7 million due to poor trading across continental Europe as employers took longer to make permanent hires.
hay stock They were down 4.3 per cent to 43.55 pence early on Tuesday afternoon, meaning their value has fallen by around 19 per cent since the start of the year.
Robert Walters shares fell further, down 6.9 per cent to £3.63, making them one of the biggest losers on the FTSE All-Share index.