Recruiters Hays and Robert Walters will make more layoffs in 2024
- Hays revealed it has reduced its workforce 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 cut even more jobs amid a challenging global job market.
Hays revealed it has reduced its workforce by 5 percent in the first three months of 2024, after cutting 1,150 positions last year to save money.
Meanwhile, Robert Walters has reduced its workforce by 4 percent to 3,812, meaning it has almost 600 fewer employees than it had at the end of March 2023.
Layoffs: Hays and Robert Walters have become the latest recruiters to cut even more jobs amid a challenging global job market
Both companies have been hit by a sharp decline in revenue from temporary and permanent recruitment, as well as weaker performance in most markets where they operate, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In Britain and Ireland, Hays saw like-for-like net fees fall by 16 percent, driven by a huge drop in fees in the technology sector.
Following a pandemic-driven surge in hiring, tech companies have undertaken mass layoffs over the past two years as the lack 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 started to rise 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, CEO of Robert Walters, said: ‘The overall environment remains one where client and candidate confidence is at low levels, which we believe will remain a headwind to income growth in the near term.’
Job cuts: Recruiter Hays revealed it has cut its workforce by 5 percent in the first three months of 2024, after cutting 1,150 positions 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 percent in the three months ending February.
It also comes a day after fellow recruiter PageGroup said it had reduced its number of fee earners by 100 in the first quarter of this year.
PageGroup has cut more than 1,300 jobs since its workforce peaked at 7,071 in the third quarter of 2022.
The Surrey-based company saw gross profit fall 12.8 per cent to £219.7m due to poor trading in continental Europe and employers taking longer to hire permanent staff.
Hays shares fell 4.3 percent to about 88 cents on Tuesday afternoon, meaning their value has shrunk by about 19 percent since the start of the year.
Robert Walters Stocks fell even further, by 6.9 per cent to £3.63, making them one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE All-Share Index.