Berkeley Scott reported  a half-year loss but said it was confident of an improvement for the second half of the year.

It said most of its core permanent recruitment markets “remain relatively buoyant” with hotels in particular trading well. It added that pubs, bars and other catering markets had slowed a little, but were still “generally trading well”.

Revenue for the six months to 31 March was £8.77m, up 6% on a year ago. The pre-tax loss widened to £626,000 from £335,000.  Chairman Jeremy Hamer said cost cuts would boost the results for the full year. 

The shares rose sharply after the announcement.