Strong international growth helped specialist recruiter Hays overcome a weakening UK job market to report pre-tax profits of £264.4m for the full year ended June 30, a rise of almost 25 per cent over the 2007 fiscal year.

Hays’ net fees of £786.8m and its operating profit from continuing activities of £253.8m each beat analysts’ consensus expectations. Its earnings per share from continuing operations, fully diluted, rose 31 per cent year on year to 13.30p.