Hays has reported a 10% year-on-year fall in net fees for Q2 as the recruitment company cited macroeconomic uncertainty and “challenging” conditions in the permanent jobs market.

The UK-based company, which operates in 33 countries, also said there had been a decline in the average hours worked in Germany.

Hays, announcing its Q2 results covering the three months to 31 December, revealed that its permanent net fees decreased by 14%, while temp and contracting net fees decreased by 8% during the quarter.

In the UK and Ireland, Hays revealed that total net fees were down by 8%.

Amid the falls in fees across the group, Hays suggested that its new year “return to work” trend would be particularly important in FY26, and that the company was closely monitoring activity levels.

The FTSE 250 company also reiterated its plans to deliver £80m per annum in structural cost savings by the end of FY29 and that it was making “strong progress”, with an estimated £15m annualised savings secured in the H1 period for FY26.

“Amidst ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, challenging perm conditions, and weaker average hours worked in Germany, we are executing well against our strategy and continue to make significant operational progress,” commented Hays CEO, Dirk Hahn.

“Strong consultant fee productivity growth and cost discipline has broadly offset our lower net fees and, as a result, we expect pre -exceptional operating profit in our first half to be circa £20m, including year-on-year improvement in the UK&I and ANZ, and in line with consensus expectations.”

He added: “With our continued actions to reposition the business, I remain confident that we will benefit materially when markets recover.”

---