The London-listed company, which operates in 36 countries and helps hire executives, professionals and clerical staff, said it is looking for a new chief executive officer to succeed Steve Ingham.

Page expects its 2022 operating profit to be "slightly ahead" of its internally compiled analysts' average expectation of 202 million pounds ($262.8 million).

The hiring sector globally has enjoyed a boom, since economies began to reopen from pandemic lockdowns as organisations moved to fill empty positions, creating a highly competitive job market.

Still, a monthly survey of recruiters showed British companies hired permanent staff at the slowest rate in a year last month.

PageGroup reported gross profit of 258.2 million pounds for the first quarter, compared with 184.4 million pounds a year earlier, and 24% above pre-pandemic levels.

Last week, PageGroup rival Robert Walters also reported upbeat first-quarter results.

($1 = 0.7686 pounds)

(Reporting by Amna Karimi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)