Stronger Yorkshire showing is just the job for Hays

The company announces full-year results on Thursday after a turnaround in the performance of its embattled UK division in the last quarter.

But the improvement is not expected to be enough to have saved the group from an overall fall in profits.

UK and Ireland net fees were up seven per cent in the three months to the end of June, bolstered by a 12 per cent increase for temporary jobs, although recruitment for permanent roles was flat.

Nine out of 12 regions delivered year-on-year growth with 10 per cent-plus rises in the North West, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Private sector fees increased six per cent with strong growth in construction and property, IT and HR businesses.

But banking and City-related areas remained subdued.

Fees from the public sector increased 11 per cent, driven by “churn” of permanent jobs, with good performances in education and healthcare.

However, the rises followed falls in the first two quarters of the financial year and a flat performance in the third.

Internationally, the latest period saw nine per cent like-for-like fees growth in its major “rest of world” division including Europe, Russia and Canada.

However, the separate Asia Pacific arm was pulled down 13 per cent by the tough Australian market. Overall group sales were up one per cent.

The company said at the time of the update that full-year operating profits were expected to be at the top end of analysts’ expectations of £112.3m to £125.5m, but this would still be below the £128.1m seen the previous year.

Analysts at Numis predict pre-tax profits of £119m, a fall of 2.8 per cent.

Last month, staffing firm PageGroup warned that it expected the next three months to be difficult, after it recorded a 4.3 per cent fall in gross profit in the first half of the year.

The firm, formerly Michael Page International, posted pre-tax earnings of £262m for the first six months of 2013.

“Activity levels remained strong throughout the quarter but, with difficult conditions likely to continue in several markets, we expect Q3 will be another challenging quarter,” chief executive Steve Ingham said in July.

PageGroup, which specialises in professional areas such as accounting and finance, is focused on permanent recruitment, which made up 78 per cent of its work. The company has an office in Leeds.

Analysts forecasted that PageGroup will post a pre-tax profit of around £69.9m in 2013