The trading update for the half year to 31 May 2019 reveals while NFI was up 13% in Continental Europe, the US and Asia Pacific & Middle East respectively, NFI was down 9% on the same period last year in the UK & Ireland.

Across the group NFI rose 9% from £148.4m to £163m, with contract NFI up 12% but permanent NFI down 1%.

The group’s energy business saw NFI increase 27% year-on-year, while its banking and finance division saw NFI fall 9%.

CEO Mark Dorman said: “In what is my first trading update with the group, I am pleased with the performance we are reporting today, delivered by a strong and talented team.

“The scale of the STEM opportunity is both enormous and growing across our key regions and we are uniquely positioned to benefit from this. With this backdrop, the structural market drivers for STEM recruitment services remain very attractive and we continue to invest in high performing teams to drive growth, in line with our vision to be the number one STEM talent provider in the best STEM markets.”

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