Five years’ growth has been wiped off recruitment firms’ permanent revenues, as turnover has dropped by £2.3bn in 12 months.

Data from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB) found members’ permanent revenue fell by 53.2% compared with the previous year, reverting back to 2004 levels.

Christopher Clark, corporate finance partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, told Recruiter there are signs the market is bottoming out, but warned recovery would take time:

“This coincides with the last major fall in the sector. The challenge is, will this dip be worse than that of 2001?”