I suppose it depends on how you interpret 'robust', which is the term Steve Ingahm, CEO of UK-headquartered international recruitment firm PageGroup (the still ‘soft-rebranded’ Michael Page International) used to describe Q1 performance. In fact, net fee income (NFI, i.e. gross profit) for the 3 months to 31st March declined by nearly 7% in constant currencies to £127m, with EMEA down 15%. Even this figure belies a 17% fall in France and a massive 27% decline in Germany.
UK NFI held pretty steady compared to the prior quarter and 'only' 1% down yoy, which is some sort of result under the circumstances and broadly in line with much larger peer Hays (see Public sector job churn steadies Hays UK). The UK hot spots were Property & Construction, Engineering, Digital, Energy and Public Sector sectors. About the only recruitment player that seems to be growing in the UK is Robert Walters (see UK a bright spot for Robert Walters) which has a much lower dependence on the finance sector than its peers.
Ingham expects Q2 to be a 'challenging' quarter which I can only assume is a step below 'robust'!