A specialist recruiter in science, technology and maths has posted a slump across its UK operations as the hiring market continues to cool.

Workforce consultant SThree recorded a 19 per cent drop in net fees across the UK, which refer to costs paid by an employer to fill a vacancy.

Total takings in the UK – which is one of the lower performers in its top five countries – fell to £11.6m in the first half of the year, down from £14.2m in the same period last year.

The figures come amid a tough economic backdrop for the jobs market in the UK, with companies hitting pause on hiring and in some cases trimming headcounts amid mounting cost pressures.

Accountancy firm BDO’s employment index hit a 15 year low in March as firms remained cautious over cost pressures.

The government has hoped to pump a wave of new tech jobs into the economy after currying favour with AI giants. At London Tech Week earlier this month, tech secretary Liz Kendal hailed around 8,000 new jobs to be created from the £6bn in investment garnered.

Business secretary Peter Kyle has also laid out plans to reimburse visa fees for high-growth firms in a bid to lure overseas talent to the UK to grow operations.

US and Japan buck trend 

The rest of SThree’s operations in continental Europe fell in line with the UK trend with Germany dropping 14 per cent to £42.3m and Netherlands 24 per cent to £22.5m.

The two make up SThree’s three largest markets along with the United States.

In Germany, weak performance was attributed to soft demand for technology roles, the nation’s biggest skills vertical. In the Netherlands, weak demand came in both engineering and technology.

But strong US demand managed to offset some of this performance, meaning group net fees suffered just a seven per cent loss. 

The US’ fees growth was up 12 per cent to just shy of £42m after demand for tech skills.

Japan was also a standout performer with fees growing 36 per cent to £6.7m 

Timo Lehne, chief executive of SThree, pointed to trading momentum having “improved” by the second quarter. At a group level, fees declined to six per cent from eight per cent in the second quarter.

But in the UK, losses worsened to a 21 per cent drop from a 17 per cent fall by the end of the first half.