(Reuters) - British recruitment firm PageGroup Plc (L:PAGE) reported an 11.7 percent rise in full-year profit as overseas growth more than offset a continued cooling in the UK hiring market.
While growth in their international businesses has allowed British staffing companies to showcase an improved performance, an uncertain domestic market post-Brexit has constrained profits.
"Our businesses in Continental Europe, Australasia and Latin America, excluding Brazil, all performed well," Chief Executive Steve Ingham said in a statement.
PageGroup, which derives nearly a fourth of its profit from the U.K., said confidence in the British job market had deteriorated, with the Brexit uncertainty causing finance firms and retailers to hold off hiring.
Gross profit from its UK business fell 3.5 percent to 146.3 million pounds ($178.24 million) in the year ended Dec. 31.
However, profit from the company's European business rose 25.3 percent to 271.9 million pounds, indicating that the rest of the continent continued was shielded from a Brexit fallout.
Recruiters such as PageGroup, Hays Plc (L:HAYS), Robert Walters Plc (L:RWA) and SThree Plc (L:STHR) are often seen as a gauge of the economy because people tend to switch jobs more frequently when confidence levels rise.
The company, which mainly finds candidates to fill permanent positions, said gross profit rose to 621 million pounds from 556.1 million pounds, a year earlier.