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Recruitment firm Hays are suffering this morning after reporting a drop in fee income over the last three months.

Shares in Hays are down 9%, as traders digest the news that its net fees fell by 3% in July-September, driven by falling demand for permanent hires.

In line with our expectations, the decline in Group net fees eased to 3% in Q1 driven by good Temp & Contracting growth in several of our countries. Perm activity remains mixed with sustained strong growth in North America but ongoing fragility in Northern Europe .

Our medium term targets can be achieved through our own actions and we were pleased to make continued good progress with our structural cost and productivity initiatives during the quarter.”