Pretax profits at recruitment firm CPL Resources dropped 92 per cent to €1.7 million for the 12 months to June, in what it called “better than expected” annual results.
Describing last year as "unprecedented", the company said gross profits dropped by a third to €35 with revenues falling 18 per cent to €212.4 million.
Fees from the firm's permanent placement business were halved to €12.2 million while the gross profit from its temporary employee business was €22.3 million, a fall of 20 per cent.
Salaries were down 21 per cent due to a reduction in staff numbers from 483 to 333 over the year.
Anne Heraty, chief executive said: "All our divisions felt the impact, especially in the second half of the year as many of our customers dramatically slowed down hiring on a permanent basis".
She said any rise in employment was likely to lag a improvement in the economy.
"Past cycles indicate that we could see a prolonged period of rising unemployment. This suggests that demand for recruitment services will be weak though 2010".
The board is recommending a final dividend of 3 cent per share, down from the 5 cent per share paid last year.
The group has taken an impairment charge of €9.6 million on the carrying value of its acquisitions.
At the year end the group had net cash reserves of €42.5 million.