Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from Tobey Sommer with Suntrust Robinson Humphrey.
Tobey Sommer - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey
Thank you. Good morning. I had a question for you on your perm trends in March and April. You said they were some of your better ones of the year so far, and I was wondering if you were describing the overall trend or you are parting out the US trends specifically.
Tim Payne
No, Tobey. That’s the aggregate. If you looked through the aggregate, we had our three strongest weeks of the year of 2008 really at the end of March and the first couple of weeks of April.
Tobey Sommer - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey
Without getting into specific segment details, would that trend hold roughly the same for the domestic piece of the business?
Tim Payne
If you look at the majority of the segments, yes. Obviously, we’re just looking at a 3-week period there, but it was strong in both the US and internationally.
Tobey Sommer - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey
Okay. I wanted to ask a question about how you ended your prepared remarks with the opportunity to expand your international business, particularly in continental Europe. What sort of specialties do you think you will focus on and could there be an introduction of some new ones and new lines of business as you look towards continental Europe?
Tim Payne
Yes, absolutely, and we’ve done this. You might recall that recently we got into the property recruitment business last year, and that’s a good example of some of the new specialties we would expect to bring at this point primarily to Australia and to Asia, but eventually continental Europe as well, but I think the two leading specialties for us as we move across Europe—three if you count perm as a separate specialty—but the two areas would be IT and accounting for us that we would focus on, but in a lot of markets and Germany is a good example, the temp market for professionals is not as well developed as what you might see in England or the Netherlands or Belgium, and so a lot of the business we might find in a place like Germany at this point would be perm, so I think part of what you will see us do is in countries where the temp market is not as well developed, we’ll do what we can with them, but we’ll also try to establish a good permanent search, and then as customs change and temp becomes more prevalent over the next years, we’ll see that grow along with that.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
