The falling value of the pound against the dollar and the euro has provided a boon for recruiters by increasing the value of international placements.

Philip Seager, director of London-based financial recruiter Alan Mitchell, told Recruiter the profit made from overseas placements jumped as the pound tumbled during 2008.

“We made one placement last summer, for a mergers and acquisition director in Bahrain, it had a fee of more than $50,000 dollars and by the time they got around to paying it, instead of being £25,000 it turned into £35,000.”

Sterling fell by 25% against the dollar during 2008 and dropped from €1.36 to €1.05 last year, falling bellow parity for the first time ever in January.

Mike Wynn, director of Construction & Property Recruitment, told Recruiter the company was focusing its efforts on overseas placements, including Africa and the Caribbean, as opportunities in the domestic market diminished.

“Any drop in the exchange rate goes completely onto our profits. You don’t have to account for VAT for these overseas placements. Clearly you still have to account for corporation tax, but in terms of a weakening pound it has been hugely beneficial for us. It is a relatively new market; we felt we needed to look further afield to identify opportunities and maintain our turnover,” said Wynn, adding that most of the overseas placements it was making were being calculated in dollars.

Recruiters have also noticed an increasing willingness of UKbased candidates to work abroad, as the change in the exchange rate increases potential earnings.

“You obviously have a massive expat market, but there’s a significant amount of domestic candidates who have never considered an oversees domestic post. However, in a very short time they will take a look at what’s available to maintain a standard of salary,” said Wynn.

Satnam Brar, managing director of IT recruiter Maximus, told Recruiter the company was placing an increasing number of UK-based workers into continental contracting roles.

“A lot of the contractors are now more open to the idea and do not mind staying out there in the week. The strength of the euro is causing that behaviour, because there is more financial benefit.”

Seager said that within the financial sector candidates are more interested in having a job offer, rather than “looking into the movements of the exchange rate”.

Recruiters have began to retrain staff to take advantage of the increasing margins and opportunities available abroad. “We have to look at re-training people to be able to increase our international business,” said Wynn.

Brar added the company has already hired a French speaking
consultant to take advantage of the trend and is planning to hire several more multi-lingual staff.