Recruitment agency Hays reports slowdown in earnings.

The reports sites a falling demand for permanent jobs with jobs in temporary recruitment flattening.  It appears that some sectors are hit worse than others, particularly construction, property accounting and finance have been hit so far.  It is possible that these are simply the earliest sectors for the downturn to take effect and others will follow.

The construction sector of the business contributes around a quarter of all the UK business, falling house prices and overall falling sales are having a significant knock on effect in recruitment.

So far the recruitment agency has shed 400 heads this year, that's around 7% of it's headcount in the UK and Ireland.  Although this has been achieved through natural attrition without the need for redundancy so far.  The company has said it may need to look at further staff cuts.