PageGroup, which is the old Michael Page International, is the first in the recruitment sector to report figures covering the period after the Brexit vote (the larger Hays had full-year figures out in the summer, but these went up only to the end of June).
There was a noticeable slowdown in hirings ahead of the referendum. The sector is a clear economic indicator, showing how confident employers are in hiring, particularly at the top end of the salary scale in the case of Page, and how willing staff are to look at new jobs.
The results from Page, which gets a quarter of its fee income from the UK, are nowhere near as bad as had been thought. Total fees in the UK were