The global employment market is mired in its longest downturn in more than 20 years, according to Dirk Hahn, chief executive of Hays, Britain’s largest listed recruitment group.
“I’ve been in this business for 27 years and have never seen a global downturn like it,” he said, citing “ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty” as the primary factor keeping both employers and prospective hires on the sidelines.
Hays, which employs nearly 7,000 consultants worldwide, reported subdued demand for temporary workers in early 2025, while the market for permanent roles, especially in Europe, has failed to recover from a pre-Christmas slump. France, the UK, Ireland, and Germany — Hays’s biggest market — remain under particular pressure.
Over the six months to December, group net fees slipped 15 per cent to £496 million, compared with £583.3 million a year earlier. Pre-tax profits tumbled 67 per cent to £9.1 million, significantly below the £27.6 million booked in the same period the previous year. Hays’s shares, down by a quarter over the past year, eased a further 1.8 per cent on Thursday, closing at 71¾p and valuing the FTSE 250 recruiter at just under £1.2 billion. Despite the fall in profits, Hays will hold its interim dividend at 0.95p per share.
The UK’s broader labour market has remained relatively resilient, with few mass redundancies. Yet James Hilton, Hays’s chief financial officer, notes a lack of appetite for new hires: “Most companies have enough work to justify keeping current staff, but they’re not looking to grow headcount,” he said. “People who secured good pay rises in the last few years aren’t motivated to move. We’re in a stalemate, but at some point, employees will want promotions or fresh challenges.”
Recruitment groups had hoped that the market would rebound earlier this year, yet that recovery continues to be “pushed back,” Hahn warns, with an upturn now not expected until 2026. In the meantime, Hays, headquartered in London with offices in 33 countries, remains focused on its technology recruitment arm — currently its most profitable division — as it weathers the enduring global hiring freeze.
