Recruitment company Robert Walters has said that due to plummeting profits in the global jobs market it is not likely this will improve until the end of 2025.
The company said their profits were almost completely wiped out as they plummeted from £20.8 million in 2023 to £500,000.
In the first few weeks of the year trading was “muted” and Toby Fowlston chief executive of Robert Walters warned that “improvement in end markets is unlikely to be seen before the latter part of 2025.”
The company have cut their workforce by 700 roles or 17% in the year to 3,294.
Fowlston said that Robert Walters will “ensure its cost base is appropriate for the current conditions” over the year.
PageGroup who are a rival also said on Thursday that last year they had a fall in earnings as pre-tax profits fell 58% to £49.1 million in 2024 and gross profits was down 12.8%.
The company said last year they cut 500 roles and had 8% less employees in 2024 to 7.361 and also they cut costs amid rough trading.
Nicholas Kirk, chief executive at PageGroup, said, “Market conditions remained challenging across all regions in 2024, with worsening sentiment and reduced confidence in Europe during the second half of the year.”
“The conversion of interviews to accepted offers remains the most significant area of challenge as ongoing macro-economic uncertainty continues to impact candidate and client confidence, which extends the time-to-hire.
“We saw a slower end to 2024, which has continued into January and February, albeit they are two of the smallest months of the year from a trading perspective.”
He added: “Looking ahead, a high degree of macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainty remains across the majority of our markets, notably in the UK, France and Germany.”
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