Its FY24 Q3 trading update, published today [24 September 2024], also finds SThree’s contractor order book down 6% year-on-year to £167m.

Technology, the company’s largest skill vertical, delivered a drop in performance, down 7% year-on-year, while engineering was also down 7%. Life sciences dropped 14%, with global activity in that sector remaining subdued, the company said.

Region-wise, better news emerged with strong net fee growth in the Middle East and Asia, “underpinned by an impressive performance” in Japan across all of the company’s skill verticals. Germany delivered a sequential improvement, benefitting from a lower rate of decline in demand for technology skills, the company revealed.

In the US, declines occurred in life sciences and technology while in the Netherlands, lower levels of demand for engineering and technology skills were experienced.

“The group remains well placed to respond when market conditions improve, with group period-end headcount broadly unchanged from the end of the last financial year,” the company said. “The group continues to maintain a robust balance sheet with net cash of £45m at 31 August 2024.” That sum reflects the “timing of certain client payments, with net cash expected to return towards normalised levels over the coming months”, the company said.

SThree’s performance for FY24 is currently expected to be in line with market expectations.

Its trading update for the year ending 30 November 2024 will be issued on 17 December 2024.

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