Race for talent sees Page post record month

A race for talent in the City and the wider business world is leading to booming profits at recruitment house PageGroup, which enjoyed a record June.

Employers large and small are fighting to grab staff as the available workforce falls in size post-Covid. Many formerly working people have chosen to retire or rethink their lives.

Profit in the second quarter rose 25% to £281 million, thanks to rising pay levels and red-hot demand.

Half the growth came from the month of June, when the company made a profit of £100 million.

PageGroup’s CEO Steve Ingham said the company “continues to benefit from favourable trading conditions, including wage inflation and increased fee rates resulting from the high demand and short supply of candidates.”

Hiring times had also been cut, he said, “facilitated by video interviewing, and investments in new systems”

Page is seeing growth in nearly all regions. The business benefits from wage inflation as the company takes a fee based on the salary of the person it helps employ.

Still, firms around the world are bracing for a leaner second half of the year to hedge for macroeconomic pressures and the ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Cost-cutting and hiring pauses are on the charts for a chunk of tech firms that are seeing their stock prices plummet.

A slowdown in the City due to a lack of flotations has already led to a hiring freeze at some firms with talk of job cuts to come before long.

PageGroup shares, down by a third this year, nudged up 4p to 434p today.

Ingham added: “Looking forward, we are clearly aware of the heightened degree of macro-economic and political uncertainty that exists globally, particularly with regards to increasing inflation in the majority of the markets in which we operate.”

Page expects to hit City profit forecasts for the year.