Latest news with #Hays
Powys County Times
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Powys County Times
Claims ombudsman 'too slow' on Powys councillor complaints
Complaints against Powys councillors are being dealt with too slowly by Wales' ombudsman, it has been claimed. Powys County Council's standards committee meeting on Wednesday, June 18 heard an update on eight referrals to the ombudsman from 2023 to this April. Details of the complaints and the identity of councillors had been kept confidential. One referral was completed with 'no evidence of a code of conduct breach being found', and one case would be referred to the committee. But the pace of progress was also highlighted by Cllr Ian Harrison, who said there are two cases that are "well past" the 12-month due date. The Conservative councillor said: 'I wonder if there's any known reason why the ombudsman has failed to complete their investigation within the 12 month period?' Deputy monitoring officer Debby Jones said: 'We have raised this concern with the ombudsman before. 'I seek regular updates from the ombudsman and I generally receive the response that they are still under investigation. 'There can be lots of reasons for delay, they can be because they can't get hold of witnesses or arrange a convenient time to meet or there's illness or absences. 'It really isn't in our control, once a matter has been referred to them.' Committee chairman and lay member Stephan Hays said that he understood that the ombudsman had been 'a bit short on personnel' capable of conducting investigations and had only last year been allowed to recruit new staff. Mr Hays said: 'So it's probably taking some time to catch up on things, in addition there has been a 30 per cent (national) increase in the number cases. 'Put all together it's exacerbated the situation for them.' Cllr Harrison stressed that he wanted the ombudsman to explain to the committee on whether the delays are down to their 'capacity issues' or there are specific 'difficulties' with the Powys related investigations. Cllr Harrison said: 'At least then we would have a feel for what's causing the issue.' Mr Hays said that he was attending a National Standards Forum meeting on Monday, June 24 which the ombudsman is due to attend and where the issue could be raised. Lay member Jonathan Goolden asked the committee that copies of previous correspondence between the council and ombudsman be passed over to Cllr Harrison.
Free Malaysia Today
15 hours ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Hays shares dive as permanent hiring falters amid fewer new job openings
Hays' shares fell as much as 20% to a 13-year low early today. (Shutterstock pic) LONDON : Recruiter Hays warned today that a reduction in new job openings recently and ongoing delays in hiring decisions would lead to a bigger-than-expected drop in profit for the year, knocking down its shares and those of European rivals. Hays said its profit for the year through June would fall more than 57% to around £45 million (US$60.3 million), hurt by broad weakness in permanent hiring as confidence among employers and job seekers was low due to economic uncertainty. Analysts were expecting £56.4 million, according to a company-compiled poll. US President Donald Trump has announced wide-ranging tariffs on trade partners, including the EU, and wants to reduce the US goods trade deficit with the EU that are making hiring decisions more challenging, even as trade talks continue. 'In previous quarters we've talked about softer markets and longer time to hire, but we have seen through this quarter a reduction in the new number of jobs coming through, as well as continued length and time to hire,' Hays CFO James Hilton said on a call with analysts. He added the British company's permanent business was probably about 10% behind where it was expected to be in the quarter. 'All in all, not a good start for earnings season of the staffing sector as the weakness in (permanent hiring) could impact also the gross margins of the other players,' ING analyst Marc Zwartsenburg said in a note. Hays' shares fell as much as 20% to a 13-year low early today before recovering some loses to trade 12.2% lower by 8.41am. Shares of rival recruiters PageGroup, Randstand, Robert Walters and Adecco fell between 3.5% and 8%. 'While Hays' biggest market, Germany, and the UK were the most challenging with permanent hiring, regions such as France, Belgium and Netherlands, also remained subdued,' Hilton said. However, temporary hiring and contracting was more resilient broadly, with the exception of Germany where temporary hiring was also weak because of exposure to the autos sector. Trump's levies are projected to slow Germany's growth in the near term and result in the loss of 90,000 jobs within a year. The country's auto sector, which relies heavily on exports to the American market, had already been in decline due to weak European demand and foreign competition.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Hays shares plummet as hiring slowdown hammers recruiter's profits
Hays shares plunged to their lowest level in around 14 years on Thursday after the recruitment company warned profits would more than half this year. The London-based business expects to achieve about £45million in pre-exceptional operating profits for the quarter ending June 2025, compared to analyst predictions of £56.4million and down by more than 57 per cent on last year. Hays told shareholders it faced 'more challenging' conditions in the permanent employment market, with heightened economic uncertainty weighs on client and candidate confidence levels. Shares in the company plummeted 11.5 per cent to 62.15p by midday, making them the FTSE 250 Index's worst performer. Hays shares have lost more than 40 per cent over the last year and have not traded at this level since December 2011. Elevated interest rates, high energy prices, and tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump are cooling global job markets, leading to lower income for recruiters. Hays anticipates reporting a 9 per cent like-for-like decline in net fees, including a 14 per cent drop in permanent fees. In its largest territory, Germany, the group forecasts a 5 per cent decrease due to major headwinds facing the country's automotive sector, such as lower sales and profits, as well as intense competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers. Hays also expects to announce falls of 9 per cent for the Australia and New Zealand region and 13 per cent for the UK and Ireland. Approximately 276,000 jobs have been lost in Britain since Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget, according to figures released last week by HMRC. The Budget included a 6.7 per cent rise in the National Living Wage to £12.21 per hour and an increase in employers' National Insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent on annual wages above £9,100 to 15 per cent on salaries exceeding £5,000. It told investors on Thursday: 'We expect current challenging market conditions to persist into FY26 and remain committed to delivering our focused strategy. 'Our initiatives to improve net fee productivity in real terms and back-office efficiency will be important drivers of medium-term profit recovery when the market recovers.' Hays downsized its own consultant headcount by 5 per cent during the opening three months of 2025, with some redundancies happening in the British Isles. Fellow London-listed recruiters Robert Walters and PageGroup have also recently cut their staff numbers. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Companies are clearly worried about the economic outlook, and they're reluctant to take on full-time staff, potentially not replacing anyone lost to natural turnover. 'At the same time, individuals are worried that if they move job, they'll be in the 'last in, first out' firing line if companies look for new cost savings.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Recruiter Hays warns global slump in hirings will more than halve its profits
A slump in hiring activity at businesses around the world means profits will more than halve at Hays, the global recruitment company has warned, sending its shares to their lowest level in more than a decade Demand for new permanent staff has fallen sharply, reflecting 'low levels of client and candidate confidence as a result of macroeconomic uncertainty', Hays told investors in an unscheduled update. The recruiter, which finds workers across the world for corporations such as Airbus and Sony, now expects its pre-exceptional operating profit to be about £45m for its current financial year, compared with City expectations of £56.4m. It would mark a more than 50% drop against last year, when Hays reported a profit of £105.1m. 'This is not wholly unsurprising given the enhanced macro-political uncertainty, and the fact that new job inflow is reducing … it is clear that a recovery is unlikely anytime soon,' analysts at the broker RBC Capital Markets said in a note. Hays said it expected like-for-like net fees to be down 9% in the final quarter of its financial year. Fees from the permanent job market were expected to drop by 14%, with temporary and contracting work down 5%. Shares in Hays fell by as much as 20% on Thursday, sending it to the bottom of the FTSE 250 index of medium-sized companies and to its lowest level in 13 years. The warning also pushed shares in rival recruiter PageGroup, which generates just under three-quarters of its fees from permanent hiring, down by 8%. Shares in Dutch rival Randstad also dropped by 4% in early trading. Hays said that in Germany, which made up about two-thirds of the company's operating profit in 2024, temporary hiring was also affected because its high exposure to the car industry. The sector was already struggling, with profit warnings at BMW and Mercedes and moves to shut factories at Volkswagen, and has been hit further this year by the uncertainty around US trade tariffs. In the UK and Ireland, Hays said it expected net fees to drop 13%, and to fall by 9% in Australia and New Zealand. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion This month, official figures showed that more than 250,000 jobs have been lost in Britain since Rachel Reeves's autumn budget. Separate figures from the Office for National Statistics also showed that the official UK unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in the three months to April, up from 4.5% in the previous three-month period, to reach the highest level since July 2021.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Whitbread, Hays, Watchmakers
On this episode of Stock Movers: -Whitbread reported comparable sales for the first quarter of -1%. - Hays slumps as much as 20%, the most in nine years, sending the staffing firm's shares to their lowest since October 2008. The company released an unscheduled update, saying that current tough market conditions would persist into FY26, with permanent recruitment activity levels especially weak. - European luxury stocks drop, led by Richemont and Swatch, after a report showed Swiss watch exports fell 9.5% in May, driven by US downturn following a strong month of April.
