UK still ‘difficult’ at Robert Walters

Though international recruitment firm, Robert Walters, managed to push UK net fee income (gross profit) up by 5% yoy in Q2 (to 30th June) to £12.1m, its eponymous CEO alluded to “a difficult economic backdrop” in its domestic market. This is starkly clear from results in its international operations, which pushed group NFI up by 21% yoy (at constant exchange rates – CER) to £49.3m. Lead region for growth was The Americas & South Africa, which nearly doubled NFI to £1.5m, though Asia Pacific – its largest market – still grew at a healthy clip, with NFI up 25% (CER) to £25.1m (see Robert Walters profits in Asia/Pacific). Robert Walters has only a small presence in IT staffing, but the signals about the state of the UK market in general suggest little sense of any sustained employment rebound, at least in its core verticals (mainly accounting, finance, banking et al).