Recruiter Robert Walters will issue an update this week on its performance over the fourth quarter, with investors hoping the firm can turn a corner after a bumpy 2023.
Amid widespread economic uncertainty and low business confidence, employers have been more cautious about hiring new employees.
Robert Walters, which specialises in sourcing talent for the City’s biggest banks, brokers and insurers, was hit hard by this last year. In particular, it suffered from the wave of job cuts in both tech and finance.
In June it issued a profit warning, which sent its shares tumbling lower. However, the firm’s interim results in August and a trading update for the third quarter both met analysts’ expectations.
Its shares lost around 17 per cent last year, after staging a recovery from its lowpoint in October. It currently trades at 447p per share.
Analysts expect that across 2023 as a whole, pretax profit will have halved to £28m although sales will be up five per cent.
But analysts will also be interested in what Robert Walters’ latest results, published on Thursday, reveal about the health of the wider economy, with the recruiter often viewed as a bellwether for the UK jobs market.
In the firm’s last quarterly update, chief executive Toby Fowlston noted that firms were looking for more temporary staff rather than permanent. This is a sign of lower corporate confidence.
Even though recruiters have suffered a difficult 2023, the labour market itself remained surprisingly resilient over 2023 and one of the big questions entering the new year is whether it will remain so.
The UK’s unemployment rate remains at 4.3 per cent, comfortably below the long-term average despite the Bank of England’s aggressive monetary tightening.
Fellow recruiters Pagegroup and Hays will update investors the following week.
