Hudson Global Inc. News Release (07/31/2012)

Hudson Global Inc. today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30. Revenue of $204.8 million for the quarter represented a decrease of 17.2% from the same period in 2011, or 13.8% in constant currency.

Hudson Americas’ revenues decreased 5% in the second quarter compared with the prior-year period. Permanent recruitment revenues grew by 41%. Temporary contracting revenues declined by 16%, primarily due to reduced project demand in Legal eDiscovery, compared with a strong second quarter a year ago. Selling, general, and administrative expenses were tightly controlled through both restructuring and strong cost management, resulting in a year-over-year reduction of 11%.

Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. News Release (07/31/12)

Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. today announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30. Net revenue of $116.1 million declined 18.7% year over year. Net income fell to $1.9 million, or 10 cents per share, for the April-June quarter, from $7.4 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier. The number of executive search confirmations declined 24%.

Net revenue in the Americas declined 14.9% year over year. Second quarter operating margin was 23.6% compared with 24.4% in the 2011 second quarter. Compared with the 2012 first quarter net revenue increased 10.8%. Operating income increased 24.2% sequentially, primarily reflecting the increase in net revenue.

“Although revenue improved compared to the first quarter, confirmation trends fell short of our expectations and second quarter results were disappointing,” says L. Kevin Kelly, chief executive officer at Heidrick & Struggles. “Search confirmations were adversely impacted by increasing uncertainty about the pace of global economic recovery, including the euro-zone financial crisis, as well as continued weakness in hiring trends and investment spending generally.”

Wall Street Journal (07/31/12) Neil Shah

According to Labor Department figures released late last week, states such as California are struggling not just with high unemployment, but also severe underemployment. California’s average unemployment rate from July 2011 through June 2012 was 11.2%, but its broader underemployment rate was far higher, at 20.3%. California has the biggest gap between its overall underemployment rate, the U-6, and a slightly narrower U-5 rate that includes discouraged and other workers but not those who work part-time but would prefer a full-time position.

The U.S., as a whole, has a 6.8 percentage-point difference between its 8.5% average unemployment rate and 15.3% underemployment rate. Some states that are performing near or better than the national average in general unemployment have bigger underemployment problems.

MarketWatch (07/31/12) Greg Robb

According to new U.S. Department of Labor numbers, the employment cost index rose 0.5% for all civilian workers in the second quarter, slightly more than the 0.4% increase in the first quarter. Employment costs have climbed 1.7% in the last year, the slowest increase since 2010’s April-June period. The employment cost index comprises wages and benefits. In the second quarter, wages—which account for 70% of employment costs—increased 0.4%, while benefits increased 0.6%.