HAYS, the recruitment firm, has reported a 10 per cent rise in fee income in Scotland in its latest financial year.
The growth came as Hays recorded strong growth in securing permanent roles for Scottish-based candidates in the IT, construction and property, and accounting and finance sectors. It said the IT sector brought the strongest upsurge in Scotland last year, with demand from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) driving recruitment by 20 per cent.
Chief financial officer Paul Venables said this reflected moves by SMEs to enhance their skills base and invest in new equipment, after putting such activity on hold during the downturn.
Mr Venables said recruitment for construction and property roles rose by 18 per cent, driven by major infrastructure projects such as the new Forth Road Bridge and the upgrade of the M8 motorway, and the general improvement in the housebuilding market.
He said the company, which grew its headcount in Scotland by 20 to 160 last year, found more roles for architects in the last 12 months than it did in the three years before.
And he flagged a seven per cent increase in recruitment activity in the accounting and finance sectors, “driven by candidates being confident to change jobs.”
Recruitment of candidates for permanent jobs rose by 14 per cent, compared with growth of five per cent for temporary positions, which Mr Venables said was a further of confidence among candidates.
“We also saw the first meaningful start to wage inflation since the downturn,” he added, noting that Hays had seen pay rise by in Scotland by two and half per cent on average.
Mr Venables was speaking as Hays, which has five offices in Scotland, reported a five per cent increase in net fees to £764.2 million in the year ended June 30.
It booked a 17 per cent rise in operating profit to £164.1m, in spite of a £9.6m foreign currency headwind.
In the UK, net fees rose by 11 per cent or £26.5m.
Shares in Hay closed up 3.8p at 158p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here