March 3 (Reuters) - Global recruitment firm PageGroup on Wednesday reported an almost 90% slump in annual profit, dented by tepid performances in all its regions as most companies remained cautious about hiring employees during the coronavirus crisis.

Many global recruiters had been battening down the hatches for most of last year in expectation of a collapse in revenue due to the coronavirus crisis, which led some of them to even downsize their workforce.

"As we enter 2021, there remains a high degree of global macro-economic uncertainty in many of our markets," Chief Executive Officer Steve Ingham said, adding that COVID-19 is still a significant global issue while a number of its markets are in lockdown.

Revenue in its EMEA business, which brings in more than half the company's net fees, was down 17.7%. Overall revenue dropped 21.1%.

The recruiter, however, added that gross profit grew 15% in Mainland China for the month of December, joining peer Hays , which also pointed at similar growth earlier this year.

PageGroup, which operates in 36 countries, said pretax profit for the year came in at 15.5 million pounds ($21.62 million), compared with a profit of 144.2 million pounds last year.

The British company, which helps hire executives, professionals and clerical staff, had cancelled dividend payouts and suspended financial forecasts last year.

Rival Robert Walters on Tuesday also posted a similar slump in its annual profit due to dismal job hiring globally. ($1 = 0.7169 pounds) (Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)