Randstad NV, the world’s largest recruiter, says continued macroeconomic uncertainty has resulted in businesses not having enough confidence to make big decisions around investments and hiring.

Persistent inflation in both the US and Europe, slower economic growth, and uncertainty around the path of interest-rate cuts have affected its clients’ spending patterns in several key markets, chief executive officer Sander van’t Noordende said in a phone interview after second-quarter results on Tuesday.

“Businesses are looking to see what these governments are going to do” after recent elections in Europe, he said. “Hiring levels I would say are subdued” also ahead of the November election in the US, Van’t Noordende said.

Staffing firms have pointed to activity levels softening in a quarter marred by lower confidence levels among clients and candidates. UK recruiter Pagegroup Plc earlier this month said it expects “no immediate signs of improvement” in most of its markets.

Tightening of hiring budgets has meant fewer vacancies, longer time to hire and businesses are also becoming more selective in their staffing choices.

Candidates are also less eager to move in such an environment and more inclined to wait until the business sentiment picks up, Van’t Noordende said. “Quit rates have gone back to pre-pandemic levels in the US, for instance,” he said.

Randstad’s organic revenue fell 7.5% in the second quarter, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The company’s shares swung between gains and losses after the report and were trading 1.8% higher as of 11:37am local time in Amsterdam.

  - Bloomberg