PageGroup profit swells as employers fast-track hiring

(Reuters) -London-listed global recruiter PageGroup Plc said on Wednesday quarterly gross profit rose nearly 26%, fuelled by tightening competition for candidates and shorter hiring times thanks to video interviewing.

The jobs market has seen red-hot demand in the face of tight labour markets and a raging war for talent, as employees move jobs and employers seek new ways of flexible working.

Coupled with pent-up demand for hiring following the COVID-19 pandemic, that helped PageGroup, which helps hire executives, professionals and clerical staff, grow second-quarter gross profit by 25.5% to 280.9 million pounds ($334.21 million).

Half the growth came from the month of June, when the company made a profit of 100 million pounds.

PageGroup’s top boss Steve Ingham said the company “continues to benefit from favourable trading conditions, including wage inflation and increased fee rates resulting from the high demand and short supply of candidates.”

Hiring times had also been cut, he said, “facilitated by video interviewing, and investments in new systems”.

Still, firms around the world are bracing for a leaner second half of the year to hedge for macroeconomic pressures and the ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Cost-cutting and hiring pauses are on the charts for a chunk of tech companies that are seeing their stock prices plummet.

Weybridge, England-headquartered PageGroup expects full-year operating profit to be in line with the company-compiled consensus of 205 million pounds.

Shares of the company fell 3%.

($1 = 0.8405 pounds)

(Reporting by Amna Karimi and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Jan Harvey)