Adecco, the world’s No. 1 staffing group, expects further revenue growth after Q3 profit beat expectations, as uncertain economic times provide an incentive for companies to take on temporary workers.
Adecco, which will provide personnel for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, said net income in the third quarter rose 42 percent to 128 million euros (US$177 million), compared with 113 million euros forecast in a Reuters poll.
“Yet more totally impressive proof of the temping agency’s performance,” analyst Martin Koch at Swiss private bank Wegelin said.
“The development in the job market gives us hope generally of a further recovery of global markets,” he said.
Temporary employment is often seen as a leading indicator for wider labor markets.
Companies around the world are grappling with a slowdown in the global economic recovery that has prompted the US Federal Reserve to provide fresh stimulus.
Last month eurozone manufacturers boosted output, while in the US, employment surged much more than expected, with private companies hiring workers at the fastest pace since April.
Shares in the Adecco traded up 2.9 percent higher in morning trading, compared to a flat sector index.
“The unemployment levels are not changing short term,” chief executive Patrick De Maeseneire said.
“Why would you hire fixed if you can have the people on a flexible basis in a still rather volatile environment?” he asked.
France and North America, Adecco’s two biggest markets, reported robust growth. Adecco also said its professional staffing business accelerated in the third quarter, adding that last month showed a similar pattern with no signs of a slowdown.
Adecco also said it was not planning any major acquisitions.
Its rivals Randstad and US-listed Manpower also both trounced forecasts with their most recent quarterly profit.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day