How Staffing Firm Robert Half Is Bucking a Stalling Job Market -- Barrons.com

By Anita Hamilton

An earnings beat at staffing firm Robert Half on Thursday showed signs of a recovery despite sluggish hiring.

Shares of Robert Half were up 23% Friday to $46.39 a share after the company beat analysts' estimates for both earnings and revenue for the three-month period ending September. Earnings per share came in at 49 cents versus the 47 cents expected by analysts. Meanwhile, revenue was $1.359 billion, a tad higher than the $1.357 billion analysts polled by FactSet had anticipated.

The bigger win, however, is that Robert Half is seeing growth at all as the broader employment services industry lost around 14,000 jobs in September, according to the latest Labor Department statistics.

But Robert Half isn't your average staffing firm. Much of its business focuses on specialized roles in finance and technology -- sectors that have fared better in recent months.

The firm's contract job placement business, which accounts for around 56% of total revenue, had adjusted revenue growth for the first time since 2022. It's also seeing "a meaningful increase in demand" for anti-money laundering and compliance work following recent Treasury Department fines and enforcement actions-such as those against American Express and Bank of America -- noted Truist analyst Tobey Sommer.

That work is handled largely by its Protiviti subsidiary, which "showed encouraging signs of improvement," Robert Half CEO Keith Waddell said.

"Recovery is clearly underway," Baird's Marc Marcon wrote in a post-earnings note on Thursday. "Clients remain focused on tech modernization, cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure, and demand trends, and AI should also continue providing opportunities for RHI," he added.

Staffing services benefited from higher demand early in the pandemic before peaking at the start of 2022 and declining for the next three years. But that's starting to turn around, BMO's Jeff Silber told Barron's. What started as a recovery in light industrial staffing has spread to the tech sector, which has also grown as a percentage of Robert Half's business.

"Uncertainty also helps the sector as companies may be reluctant to hire full-time workers but still need labor to help meet customer demand," Silber added.

Things are looking solid for the current quarter as well, with the company expecting revenue to hit $1.285 billion to $1.385 billion and earnings of 36 cents to 46 cents per share. Both figures are well above its results for the same period last year.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2026 14:05 ET (18:05 GMT)