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Group finance director Paul Venables said that due to the intense competition for skilled workers, the white-collar recruiter had seen candidates in some sectors offered pay increases of up to 20 percent to switch jobs.
He said: “Employers have been caught out by the speed and the acceleration in the economic recovery, and it has been much stronger than expected.
“There’s a shortage of people, so they are having to pay out more than they would have done pre-pandemic.”
September was Hays’s best month since the pandemic started, helping its first quarter fees grow 36 percent compared with the same three-month period last year.
It said that a 58 percent surge in permanent fees drove its growth, while income from placing temporary roles rose 22 percent.
Hays saw a 44 percent increase in fees from its British arm during the quarter, driven by “excellent growth” of 69 percent in permanent fees.
Temp income was up 29 percent. Fees from private sector employers rose 57 percent, while the public sector grew by 21 percent.
While most regions saw fee growth in line with the overall UK business, Hays said the North-west and the Midlands experienced the strongest growth, up 74 percent and 51 percent respectively. London grew by 46 percent.
The UK and Ireland was Hays’s best performing region, with net fees up 44 percent.
The United States, South America, Asia and Europe saw growth of 37 percent. Germany was up 31 percent, while income from Australia and New Zealand was up 29 percent.
Neil Shah, director of research at analysts Edison Group, said: “Set against the context of UK job vacancies reaching a 20-year high, the group looks to be in prime position to thrive.
“However, the outlook for the sector retains an element of uncertainty due to a potentially disruptive combination of labour shortages, inflation and the end of the furlough scheme.”
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