Bob Lawson, chair of the recruitment and business services group Hays has said the board is still searching for a CEO, following the resignation of its previous chief executive, John Cole.

Cole quit the company last June after it issued a profit warning. Lawson blamed the current economic conditions for the organisation’s inability to find a new leader.

He said: ‘The experience we have had is that there are very few people with the appropriate qualifications who are willing to change jobs.

‘The climate does not help – we had one candidate who pulled back at the eleventh hour, so we have now extended the search Europe-wide.’

Shares in the organisation slipped by 25p – around 12% – to 185p after interim results revealed depressed market conditions had hit profits. In the half-year period ending 31 December, the company’s personnel arm recorded operating profits of £62m, a drop of 12% compared with the previous year.

The division increased overall sales by 1%, but this was offset by an increase in low-margin temporary placements. As a result, overall margin dropped by 12.2% and the division has reduced its head count by just over 10%, from a peak of 4,238 to 3,791.

Lawson said the number of temporary workers restarting contracts in January was similar to the level working in the final quarter of last year. Permanent fees remain sensitive to current economic conditions and figures for January and February suggest temporary fees have grown by around 3% compared with the same period last year.

The trend for an increase in business but decrease in margins extended across the organisation, demonstrated by an increase in turnover from £1,172.9m in 2000 to £1,198.5m in 2001.