UK recruiter Robert Walters turns to first-half loss

By Prerna Bedi

(Reuters) - UK recruiter Robert Walters turned to a first-half loss on Thursday, as candidates hesitated to switch jobs and companies took longer to fill vacancies amid macroeconomic and political uncertainties.

The company, which specialises in hiring for the legal, accountancy and technology sectors, also reaffirmed that it did not expect any material improvement in confidence levels before 2025.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Recruitment firms have been flagging tough hiring market conditions over the past year as low confidence among both clients and candidates extends hiring time, with multiple party elections in 2024, dealing another blow to the sector.

CONTEXT

Robert Walters had joined larger peers Hays and PageGroup last month in warning on tough hiring market conditions, worsened by elections in the UK and France.

BY THE NUMBERS

The recruiter posted a loss before tax of 2.3 million pounds ($3 million) for the first six months of 2024, compared to a profit of 8.1 million pounds it logged last year.

KEY QUOTES

"We expect cost-saving measures to continue and to get a little bit bigger and therefore, we would expect to mitigate more of the second half fee income reduction," CFO David Bower said in an interview with Reuters.

"So overall, we are anticipating being profitable in the

second half," Bower added.

($1 = 0.7793 pounds)

(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)