Manpower’s net earnings for the three months ending 31 March 2008 increased 27% to £37.8m, compared to £29.8m a year earlier. Revenues for the first quarter were £2.7bn, an increase of 19% from the same time last year. When the effect of currency changes are removed, revenues increased 8% over the previous year period.

Jeffrey A Joerres (pictured), Manpower chairman and chief executive, said: “The first quarter performance underscores, once again, the strength of our geographic and service line portfolio. Operations like Elan, Germany and Italy performed extremely well with local currency revenue growth of 43%, 22% and 15% respectively. In these important markets, while we remain on guard, we do not detect any material slowing in our business.

“While economic conditions remain uncertain in parts of the world, we believe our team, coupled with the strength of our portfolio of services, will deliver solid results in the second quarter. We anticipate our second quarter diluted earnings per share to be in the range of 73p to 76p, which includes an estimated favourable currency impact of 10p."