A need for compliance professionals helped finance and accountancy recruiter Robert Half International report a strong increase in revenue and profit for the final quarter of 2004 and the whole financial year.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2004 jumped by 47% to $754.2m (£400.3m), compared with $517.7m (£274.7m) during the same period in 2003. Profits also soared from $4.8m (£2.5m) in the fourth quarter of 2003 to $49.7m (£26.4m) in 2004.

Harold Messmer, chairman and chief executive of Robert Half, estimated that between 17% and 20% of consolidated revenues referred directly to recruitment for compliance projects stemming as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting regulations.

One of the best performances came from RHI’s Protoviti subsidiary. Its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2004 were more than treble what they had been in 2003.