The hiring – and the revenue – keeps going up

A veritable flood of financial reports for Q2 2022 just came out, and they are – in a word – up. Now, remember that these summaries are by definition backward-looking, but it appears that despite worries in certain sectors about recession, the labor market continues to thrive. In fact, the June 2022 report on the U.S. job market showed that employers added 528,000 jobs, driving the unemployment figure down to 3.5%. So if a slowdown is coming, it doesn’t seem destined in these stats. Let’s dig into a few of the key Q2 reports:

• DHI meets estimates: DHI Group (DHX) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.01 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. A quarter ago, it was expected that this provider of websites and career fairs for professionals would post a loss of $0.01 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.01, delivering a surprise of 200%. The company posted revenues for the quarter of $37.06 million, up from $28.72M for the same quarter a year ago. Why the rise? DHI claims it’s all about demand for tech workers.
• Fiverr revenue up: Freelance marketplace Fiverr said second-quarter revenue rose 13% year over year to $85.01 million.  The company also reported growth in both the number of active buyers and spend per buyer. The number of active buyers on the platform rose 6% year over year to 4.2 million in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the amount of spend per buyer rose by 14% to $259. The company says it’s focusing more on profitability, rather than growth at any cost.
• Wanted Lab sets records: Wanted Lab, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, posted 78.1% year-on-year growth in sales revenue and a 103% jump in operating profit in Q2. Sales amounted to ₩13.8 billion ($10.6 million U.S.), very close to the annual revenue of FY2020. The company operates Korean site recruitment marketplace Wanted.co.kr and KreditJob.com, as well as managing job sites jp.wanted.jobs in Japan and Wanted.jobs in Singapore.
• Randstad revenue rises, Monster slows: Second-quarter revenue rose 9% on an organic basis at Randstad nv, and the company also reported the gross margin improved, citing strength in perm placement and RPO revenue growth. However, revenue from Monster only rose 1% year over year; it had risen by 9% year over year in the first quarter. The company reported perm placement revenue rose 38% year over year to €134 million (US$140.6 million) and RPO revenue rose 108% year over year to €119 million (US$124.8 million).
• Alma Career revenue jumps: Alma Career, which houses Alma Media‘s recruitment businesses in ten countries in Eastern Central Europe, said that H1 revenue amounted to €55.1 million ($56.2 million U.S.) — up 52.4% from €36.2 million in H1 of FY2021. The company generated most of its H1 revenue in the Czech Republic (€31.2 million), Slovakia (€9.1 million), the Baltics (€6 million), Croatia (€5 million), and Finland (€3 million). The Alma Career segment includes recruitment sites Monster.fi, Jobs.cz, Prace.cz, CV Online, Profesia.sk, MojPosao.net and MojPosao.ba.
• LinkedIn revenue growth less than expected: LinkedIn revenue rose 29% in constant currency in the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, up 26% on a reported basis to $768 million. The Microsoft-owned company’s growth was lower than expected as revenue from its marketing solutions advertising business was impacted by a slowdown in advertising spend. LinkedIn’s year-over-year revenue growth in the upcoming first quarter is not forecast to match the fourth quarter’s growth.
• UpWork is up 26%:  UpWork posted a 26% year-over-year hike in total revenue to reach $157 million in the second quarter of 2022. Its marketplace revenue also grew by 26% to stand at $144 million, over the same period, while managed services revenue rose by 29% to $12.6 million. The company also recorded its highest gross margin since becoming a public company. UpWork’s adjusted EBITDA was -$1.9 million in Q2 2022, versus $7.3 million in the second quarter of 2021.

I read this as overall, almost everyone’s up (looks like LinkedIn got dragged down by its Marketing Solutions component – not the recruiting piece), and that growth in some places is slower – but in other places is record-setting. What about the non-public side of the job board and marketplace industry? What about all of those thousands of privately held niche sites? Well, based on conversations with clients and colleagues, those privately held sites are up, too. Not everyone, and not everywhere – but almost everyone, and almost everywhere.

Here’s to another great quarter!

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