World faces ‘brutal’ backlash from Red Sea crisis Business

Robert Walters has axed hundreds of staff as it battles a slowdown in hiring around the world.

The recruitment consultancy said it had axed about 220 roles in the last three months of last year, taking its total headcount down to 3,980.

The company reported a 13pc slowdown in fee income to £91.4m as companies around the world have had their hiring plans derailed by higher interest rates.

Chief executive Toby Fowlston said: “Despite the challenging macro-economic conditions, the group has delivered a resilient fourth quarter and FY23 profit before tax will be in-line with market expectations.”

Robert Walters’ struggles comes as Britain finds itself in the grip of the longest slump in jobs vacancies on record as higher interest rates knock the labour market. 

A total of 949,000 positions were advertised in the three months to November, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which was down almost a quarter of a million from the number of posts advertised a year ago. 

Rival recruiter Hays announced on Tuesday it had axed 650 jobs across its workforce as it tried to offset what it called a “clear slowdown” in the labour market.

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What happened overnight 

Asian stocks rose ahead of US inflation data that could influence the Federal Reserve’s thinking on rate cuts, while the crypto world got a boost after exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin were approved in the United States.

Japan’s Nikkei breached 35,000 for the first time since February 1990 in a blistering start to the year, after rising 28pc in 2023, its strongest yearly performance in a decade. 

The Nikkei closed up 1.8pc, or 608.14 points, to 35,049.86 while the broader Topix index added 1.6pc, or 38.39 points to 2,482.87.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta were also well up.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 top American companies rose 0.45pc, to 37,695.73, while the S&P 500 gained 0.57pc, closing at 4,783.45. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite index added 0.75pc, reaching 14,969.65.

The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds advanced one basis point to 4.03pc.