SThree first quarter gross profit up 10%

(ShareCast News) - Recruiter SThree reported a jump in first quarter gross profit despite weakness in the energy division.In a trading update for the period from 1 December to date, the company said gross profit rose 10% year-on-year and 17% excluding the energy division.Chief executive Gary Elden said: "Overall, we've made an encouraging start to the year in what is our seasonally least significant quarter. Our investment in Contract and our drive to rebuild productivity in Permanent is continuing to have a positive impact on the Group result. "Performances from our ICT and Life Sciences businesses and across Continental Europe and the USA were particularly pleasing."Gross profit in ICT was up 20% year-on-year while Life Sciences grew 18%. In terms of geographies, Europe saw the biggest growth, of 20%, with the US up 14%.The company said its permanent business benefited from a further improvement in productivity, driven by a particularly strong performance in Continental Europe, which was up 25% year-on-year. SThree said it has signs of slowing growth in its UK Permanent business but remained confident there are good growth opportunities this year across the geographies and sectors it serves.At 1000 GMT, SThree shares were up 1.5% to 294.43p.