PageGroup PLC (LSE:PAGE) witnessed a slowdown in hiring last month as it flagged a "heightened degree" of global economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Nevertheless, the global professional recruiter stuck to its outlook for the year after reporting a jump in revenue and pre-tax profit in the first half.
"In July, we noted a slight slowing in time to hire in some of our markets, and we continue to closely monitor our forward-looking KPIs," Steve Ingham, Chief Executive Officer, said.
“Looking forward, we recognise the heightened degree of global macro-economic and geo-political uncertainty, particularly with regards to increasing inflation around the world.
"However, at this point, our expectations for 2022 full year operating profit remain in line with the company compiled consensus of £206mln.”
Revenue at the global professional recruiter jumped 27.5% to £977.3mln for the six months to the end of June, while pre-tax profit was 79.8% higher at £114.5mln.
“The group continued to benefit from favourable trading conditions, including wage inflation and increased fee rates resulting from the high demand and short supply of candidates, in addition to a shorter time to hire facilitated by video interviewing and investments in new systems," Ingham said.
The company announced an interim dividend of 4.91p, up from 4.70p previously and an unchanged special dividend of 26.71p.
Shares of the company were trading 10% lower at 407.20p.