The UK was the second fastest growing market for international recruitment giant, Adecco, last quarter. UK revenues grew by 9% to €459m, entirely due to contractor placements; permanent placement revenues fell by 10%, reflecting the underlying lack of confidence in the economy (e.g. see Banking slowdown hits Hays UK). Even so, UK margins (EBITA) expanded by 60bps to 2.4%. The fastest growing region was (surprise, surprise) Germany/Austria, up 10% to €400m. France, Adecco’s largest market (and its worst performing), saw revenues decline 10% to €1.27b.
It appears that IT recruitment was the star of the show in the UK, up double-digits on the back of ‘a few larger project wins’. Nice to hear there are still decent-size IT projects out there. Indeed, IT was Adecco’s second fastest growing business line, with revenues advancing 8% to €597m. Engineering & Technical recruitment grew fastest, up 10% to €286m. Total Q1 revenues grew by only 1% to €5.04b.