Work Group reported pre-tax profit of £767,000 for the first half of the year, compared with £327,000 for the same period a year earlier.

Chairman Simon Howard said: “Last year’s acquisition of Armstrong Craven has proved a particular success and has materially strengthened our ‘direct resourcing’ positioning within the recruitment services market. In the Work Adcomms and Managed Resourcing businesses the positive trend away from lower margin media-based income has continued.”

Howard said he had seen an acceleration of a tend of employers seeking to reduce their dependence on third party recruiters – i.e. employment and recruitment agencies.

He added: “Our volume of web-based work continues to increase - in particular the creation of websites which enable employers to harness better the recruitment benefits of the internet.”