Despite slower growth and narrower margins in its UK business compared to the prior quarter (see Adecco UK sees IT recruitment jump), Zurich-headquartered global recruitment giant, Adecco, alluded to double-digit growth in UK IT.
Overall, UK (& Ireland) revenues in Q2 (to 30th June) grew by 7% (organic) to €470m, but (adjusted) operating margins lost a point to just 0.7%, mainly it seems due to sponsorship costs for the Olympics, for which Adecco is the official supplier of temps (other than for security staff, I assume!) This compares with headline worldwide growth of 1% to €5.2b, which after currency translation was actually a 3% decline. IT revenues grew by 4% organically to €599m.
It seems like Adecco is doing better in the UK IT recruitment market than peers such as Hays (see ‘Resilient’ UK IT recruitment belies weaker quarter for Hays), SThree (see SThree has ‘satisfactory’ H1) and, on a much smaller scale, InterQuest (see InterQuest still being knocked from pillar to post). But perhaps the margin story suggests that Adecco is more interested in chasing share than profit.