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Leading agency reports sharp drop in contractor numbers

Published on Mar 9, 2009 | | Contract Rate Checker

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Just months after announcing solid results for 2008, one of the leading contractor recruitment agencies has reported a sharp drop in contractor numbers over the past quarter.

SThree released an interim statement to the stockmarket containing financial and operational data for the quarter ending 1st March 2009

Sharp decline in contractor numbers

Unsurprisingly, given the economic climate, the Group suffered a sharp decline in permanent and contract placements during the quarter.

Additionally, its deal pipeline "indicates an overall deterioration in market conditions."

At the end of February 2009, SThree had 5,036 active contractors on its books, down almost 10% on the same quarter in 2008. This number also represented a 12.3% decline on its financial year end number of 5,745 contractors.

Interestingly, the Group says that the gross profit from contractor day rates remained strong.

During the last quarter, the Group made 1,728 permanent placements, a 24.5% drop on the same period in 2008.

Agency Comment

Russell Clements, Chief Executive, said:

"Given the extremely weak economic backdrop, we anticipated that 2009 would be an exceptionally tough year and this assumption has been borne out in the first quarter particularly in the UK where demand is very weak. Our international business has fared relatively better but given the global nature of the current downturn it is inevitable that these markets have also been impacted."