With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

Industries included in the sector are advertising, diversified outsourcing services, and financial data services.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Business Services

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-165-Manpower Group

As the world's third-largest staffing firm, the company provides services through its four primary brands: Manpower, Experis, Right Management, and ManpowerGroup Solutions.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-158-Manpower-Group

The global staffing agency offers workplace solutions and HR services via its businesses in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

World's Most Admired Companies

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2018 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2017 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2016 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

Business insiders have spoken: Asked which companies they most admire, more than 4,100 executives, directors, and analysts chose these top 50 All-Stars.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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ManpowerGroup delivers workforce solutions globally. The company offers recruiting services for permanent, temporary, and contract positions across numerous industries as well as assessment, upskilling, reskilling, and career management services. Furthermore, it provides workforce consulting, training, and development. ManpowerGroup was founded in 1948.

Q2 2026

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Q1 2025

Q4 2024

ManpowerGroup (MAN): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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ManpowerGroup

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Welcome to ManpowerGroup's 4th Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. You'll be put in a listen only mode until the question and answer time begins. This call is being recorded. If you care to drop off now, please do so. I would now like to turn the call over to ManpowerGroup's Chairman and CEO, Mr.

Welcome, and thank you for joining us for our Q4 2024 conference call. Our Chief Financial Officer, Jack McGinnis, is with me today. And for your convenience, we have included our prepared remarks within the Investor Relations section of our website at manpagroup.com. I will start by going through some of the highlights of the quarter and the full year, then Jack will go through the Q4 results and guidance for the Q1 of 2025. I will then share some concluding thoughts before we start our Q and A session.

Jack will now cover the Safe Harbor language.

Good morning, everyone. This conference call includes forward looking statements, including statements concerning economic and geopolitical uncertainty,

which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs. Actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements. Slide 2 of our earnings release presentation further identifies forward looking statements made in this call and factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially and information regarding reconciliation of non GAAP measures.

Thanks, Jack. Last week, I attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This gathering of business and government leaders from various countries offered an opportunity to connect with CEOs, policymakers and thought leaders involved in areas relevant to our business. Our main insights from this year's meeting focused on 2 themes, the global economic outlook across regions and harnessing the potential of AI. The unpredictable economic and geopolitical global outlook was a key theme.

The sentiment among business participants with regards to the U. S. Economic outlook appears to have improved, especially among U. S. Organizations.

In contrast, concerns over European Economic Growth were evident with leaders noting the continued weakness within the EU and in Northern Europe specifically, and the urgent imperative of getting back to economic growth that keeps pace or reduces the gap with the U. S. And China. Since we've seen this gap reflected in our own business and the staffing industry more broadly, I am encouraged that addressing the competitiveness of Europe has become an important priority for policymakers in that region. An action plan for growth was presented and we're pleased by this urgency and alignment along with a helpful backdrop of lower inflation and interest rates trending in the right direction in Europe.

The other main theme was the continued optimism and believes that the broad adoption of AI can generate significant growth opportunities for companies and nations. While last year's focus was on adopting Gen AI across enterprises, this year's discussions centered optimistically on how to translate adoption to business impact and productivity gains. We see a clear tension between employers and employees in this regard with approximately half of business leaders believing AI will translate to business growth this year and 50% of workers are fearful of the impact of AI on their roles. Ensuring people have the skills to maximize tech investments and leaders bring their workforce along during the transition is critical to realize the potential of AI. This continues to be an area of significant promise for our own productivity enhancement and revenue growth.

Our experienced tech talent outlook found 58% of employers believe AI will be a job creator and many of them are training their current workforce to address tech staffing challenges. We aim to exploit this opportunity by providing re skilling and upskilling solutions to our clients and candidates as they strive to fill roles requiring different and increasingly specialist skills. Turning to the current environment, our most recent ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey of 40,000 employers supports the need for specialized skills. Employers report cautious yet steady hiring intentions for the 3 months ahead with many prioritizing retention and attraction of workers with an adaptable mindset to adjust to the evolving requirements. Tech and data skills remain high demand across industries and we see growing focus on the soft skills that enable businesses to unlock growth.

Consistent hiring intentions, particularly among larger organizations point to stability and we hope to see this trend continued throughout 2025. Based on our 75 year history, we are experienced at navigating various economic cycles and in periods like this, we are constantly positioning the business to be able to manage our productivity and accelerate into recovery. But we are seeing our industry affected in some new ways compared to previous downturn, particularly labor hoarding post pandemic, coupled with prolonged hesitancy from employers due to the uncertain economic and geopolitical landscape, we remain convinced that traditional industry dynamics will play out over time in both North America and Europe. To that point, although still in the early stages, we are seeing some encouraging performance in parts of our business. Specifically, our U.

S. Manpower brand, which is typically on the leading edge of recovery, has crossed over to growth in the second half of twenty twenty four. And similarly, our Talent Solutions business globally has also crossed over to growth in the same time period. Sustaining these trends will be an important next step and we will be monitoring the evolution closely as we move forward into 2025. Now to our results.

In the Q4, revenue was $4,400,000,000 down 3% year over year in constant currency. Our reported EBITDA for the quarter was $76,000,000 Adjusting for restructuring costs and other special items, which we'll cover in the financial review, EBITDA was $94,000,000 representing a decrease of 12% in constant currency year over year. Reported EBITDA margins was 1.7% and adjusted EBITDA margins was 2.1%. Earnings per diluted share was $0.47 on a reported basis, while earnings per diluted share was $1.02 on an adjusted basis. Adjusted earnings per share decreased 27 percent year over year in constant currency.

In the Q4, staffing gross profit margins remained solid in a challenging environment. From a geographic perspective, we saw the continuation of a challenging environment in Europe and North America during the quarter while demand for our services in LatAm and APME remained good. Turning to the full year results for a few moments. Reported earnings per share for the year was $3.01 As adjusted, earnings per share was $4.55 and represented a constant currency decrease of 21%. Revenues for the year decreased 3% in constant currency to $17,900,000,000 and reported EBITDA was $339,000,000 And as adjusted, EBITDA was $403,000,000 which represented a 15% constant currency decrease year over year.

I will now turn it over to Jack to take you through the results in more detail.

Thanks, Jonas. Going back to the quarterly results on Slide 3, revenues in the 4th quarter were significantly impacted by the strength in U. S. Dollar and after adjusting for currency impacts came in slightly above the midpoint of our constant currency guidance range.

Gross profit margin came in at the low end of our guidance range. As adjusted, EBITDA was $94,000,000 representing a 12% decrease in constant currency compared to the prior year period. As adjusted, EBITDA margin was 2.1% and came in at the low end of our guidance range, representing 40 basis points of decline year over year. Foreign currency translation drove a 2% unfavorable impact to the U. S.

Dollar reported revenue trend in addition to the constant currency decrease of 3%. Organic days adjusted constant currency revenue decreased 2.5% in the quarter, which was favorable to our guidance of a 4% decrease on the same basis. Turning to the EPS bridge, reported net earnings per share was 0 point 4 $7 Adjusted EPS was 1.02 dollars and came in very close to the midpoint of our guidance range. Walking from our guidance midpoint of $1.03 our results included a slightly lower operational performance of $0.01 a lower weighted average share count due to share repurchases in the quarter, which had a positive impact of $0.01 slightly lower tax rate, which had a positive $0.02 impact and a foreign currency impact that was $0.03 worse than our guidance. Restructuring costs and other items represented $0.55 resulting in the reported EPS of $0.47 Next, let's review our revenue by business line.

Year over year on an organic constant currency basis, the Manpower brand declined 1% in the quarter, the Experis brand declined by 6% and the Talent Solutions brand had a revenue increase of 6%. Within Talent Solutions, our RPO business experienced a year over year revenue increase, which was an improvement from the trend in the 3rd quarter. Our MSP business recorded a strong double digit revenue increase compared to the prior year, while Right Management experienced a year over year revenue decline in the quarter as outplacement activity began to slow. Looking at our gross profit margin in detail, our gross margin came in at 17.2% for the quarter. Staffing margin contributed a 30 basis point reduction due to mix shifts, lower bench utilization in December in select countries and lower volumes while pricing remained stable.

Experis services contributed 10 basis point reduction due to lower volumes. Other items resulted in a 10 basis point margin increase. Moving on to our gross profit by business line. During the quarter, the Manpower brand comprised 59% of gross profit, our experienced professional business comprised 23% and talent solutions comprised 18%. During the quarter, our consolidated gross profit decreased by 4% on an organic constant currency basis year over year, representing a stable trend from the 4% decline in the 3rd quarter.

Our Manpower brand reported an organic gross profit decrease of 3% in constant currency year over year, a slight decline from the 2% decrease in the 3rd quarter. Gross profit in our experienced brand decreased 11% in organic constant currency year over year, a slight improvement from the 12% decrease in the 3rd quarter. Gross profit in Talent Solutions increased 7% in organic constant currency year over year, representing ongoing growth, although at a slightly lower pace from the 3rd quarter increase of 9%. RPO and MSP saw improved year over year gross profit growth in the 4th quarter compared to the previous quarter, while Right Management gross profit declined slightly. Reported SG and A expense in the quarter was 687,000,000 dollars SG and A as adjusted was down 4% year over year on a constant currency basis and down 3% on an organic constant currency basis.

The year over year SG and A decrease is largely consisted of reductions in operational costs of $20,000,000 Underlying corporate costs continued to include our back office transformation spend and these programs are progressing well with expected medium and long term efficiencies. Currency changes also contributed to a $7,000,000 decrease. Adjusted SG and A expenses as a percentage of revenue represented 15% in constant currency in the 4th quarter. Adjustments represented restructuring costs of $16,000,000 and a loss on sale related to our Austria business recorded in SG and A of $2,000,000 The Americas segment comprised 24% of consolidated revenue. Revenue in the quarter was $1,100,000,000 representing an increase of 7% compared to the prior year period on a constant currency basis.

As adjusted, OUP was $39,000,000 and OUP margin was 3.6%. Restructuring charges of $4,000,000 largely represented the U. S. And Canada. The U.

S. Is the largest country in the Americas segment, comprising 65 percent of segment revenues. Revenue in the U. S. Was $692,000,000 during the quarter, representing a 1% days adjusted decrease compared to the prior year.

This represents an improvement from the 4% decline in the 3rd quarter as Manpower and Town Solutions growth partially offset a decline in Experis. As adjusted OUP for our U. S. Business was $19,000,000 in the quarter as adjusted OUP margin was 2.8%. Within the U.

S, the Manpower brand comprised 26% of gross profit during the quarter. Revenue for the Manpower brand in the U. S. Increased 2% on a days adjusted basis during the quarter, which was an improvement from the 1% increase in the Q3. The Experis brand in the U.

S. Comprised 39% of gross profit in the quarter. Within Experis in the U. S, IT skills comprise approximately 90% of revenues. Experis U.

S. Revenue decreased 6% on a days adjusted basis during the quarter, an improvement from the 11% decline in the 3rd quarter. Talent Solutions in the U. S. Contributed 35% of gross profit and saw revenue increase of 16% in the quarter, an improvement from the 10% increase in the 3rd quarter.

RPO experienced double digit revenue increases in the U. S, reflecting increased activity in select client programs. The U. S. MSP business executed well during the quarter, posting strong double digit revenue increases as well, while outplacement activity within our Right Management business was down slightly year over year as outplacement activity slowed.

In the Q1 of 2025, we expect the rate of revenue decline to range from similar to a slight further decline than the 4th quarter trend for our overall U. S. Business. Southern Europe revenue comprised 47% of the consolidated revenue in the quarter. Revenue in Southern Europe was $2,000,000,000 representing a 3% decrease in constant currency.

As adjusted, OUP for our Southern Europe business was $73,000,000 in the quarter and OUP margin was 3.6%. Restructuring charges of $2,000,000 primarily represented actions in Spain and Italy. France revenue comprised 56% of the Southern Europe segment in the quarter and decreased 7% on a days adjusted constant currency basis. As adjusted, OUP for our France business was $36,000,000 in the quarter. Adjusted OUP margin was 3.2%.

Activity to date in January is lower than trends experienced in the 4th quarter and we are cautiously estimating the Q1 trend to reflect the slight further decline from the Q4 trend. Revenue in Italy equaled $419,000,000 in the 4th quarter, reflecting a decrease of 1% on a days adjusted constant currency basis. OUP equaled $26,000,000 and OUP margin was 6.3%. We estimate that Italy will have a similar to slightly improved revenue trend in the Q1 compared to the Q4. Our Northern Europe segment comprised 17% of the consolidated revenue in the quarter.

Revenue of $768,000,000 represented a 16% decline in constant currency. As adjusted OUP was a $10,000,000 loss. This is the most challenged part of our business subject to low economic growth rates with many markets operating a bench model, which creates higher financial and operational pressures than we see in other markets. The majority of the restructuring charges of $6,000,000 was recorded in Germany with modest additional charges in the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Our largest market in the Northern Europe segment is the UK, which represented 34% of segment revenues in the quarter.

During the quarter, UK revenues decreased 22% on a days adjusted constant currency basis. The UK market continues to be very challenging and we expect the rate of revenue decline to continue to be similar in the Q1 compared to the Q4. In Germany, revenues decreased 24% on a days adjusted constant currency basis in the quarter. Germany manufacturing trends have been weak driving further declines. In the Q1, we are expecting a similar year over year revenue decline compared to the Q4 trend.

The Nordics continue to experience very difficult market conditions with revenues decreasing 21% and days adjusted constant currency in the quarter. Within the Nordics, Sweden is experiencing the largest declines based on a weak manufacturing environment and the adjustment to new temporary worker term limits discussed last quarter. The Asia Pacific Middle East segment comprises 12% of total company revenue. In the quarter, revenues equaled $522,000,000 representing an increase of 7% in organic constant currency after incorporating the sale and franchising of our South Korea business, which completed as expected on November 1. As adjusted, OUP was 27,000,000 dollars and OUP margin was 5.1%.

Restructuring charges of $1,000,000 relate to the actions taken in our new Caledonia business. The largest market in the APME segment is Japan, which represented 57% of segment revenues in the quarter. Revenue in Japan grew 7% on a days adjusted constant currency basis. We remain very pleased with the consistent performance of our Japan business and we expect continued strong revenue growth in the Q1. I'll now turn to cash flow and balance sheet.

In full year 2024, free cash flow equaled $258,000,000 compared to $270,000,000 in the prior year. In the Q4, we drove a strong finish to the year and free cash flow represented $236,000,000 and compares to $91,000,000 in the prior year. At year end, day sales outstanding decreased by about 3 days to just under 52 days. During the Q4, capital expenditures represented 11,000,000 dollars During the Q4, we repurchased 552,000 shares of stock for $34,000,000 As of December 31, we have 2,600,000 shares remaining for repurchase under the share program approved in August of 2023. Our balance sheet ended the quarter with cash of $509,000,000 and total debt of $953,000,000 Net debt equaled $443,000,000 at quarter end.

Our debt ratios at year end reflect total gross debt to trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA of 2.1 and total debt to total capitalization at 31%. Our debt and credit facility arrangements are displayed in the appendix of the presentation. Next, I'll review our outlook for the Q1 of 2025. Based on trends in the Q4 and January activity to date, our forecast is cautious and anticipates that the Q1 will continue to be challenging in Europe. When considering our guidance for the Q1, it is also important to note the following unique considerations, which drive lower revenue and earnings per share impacts year over year.

1, the strength in U. S. Dollars created a significant year over year negative foreign currency translation impact. 2, there are less working days in the Q1 of 2025 driven by the leap year in the prior year. 3, there's always a meaningful sequential seasonal decrease in earnings from the Q4 to the Q1.

4, the prior year period benefited from an unusually low effective tax rate and the current tax rate guidance is more aligned to the expected full year rate. Because the Q1 is typically the lowest earnings level of the calendar year, these impacts have a more significant impact on the Q1's earnings than would be the case in other quarters. With that said, we are forecasting earnings per share for the Q1 to be in the range of $0.47 to $0.57 The guidance range also includes an unfavorable foreign currency impact of $0.06 per share and our foreign currency translation rate estimates are disclosed at the bottom of the guidance slide. Our constant currency revenue guidance range is between a decrease of 5% 9% and at the midpoint is a 7% decrease. Considering a slightly lower number of working days and the impact of our dispositions, our organic days adjusted constant currency revenue decrease represents 5% at the midpoint.

EBITDA margin for the Q1 is projected to be down 30 basis points at the midpoint compared to the prior year. We estimate that the effective tax rate for the Q1 will be 36%, which reflects the overall mix effect of lower earnings from lower tax geographies in the current environment as well as the impact of valuation allowances in certain markets that will reverse in the future when those markets rebound. We estimate 36% for the full year effective tax rate as well. As the government of France has not enacted any of their previously proposed corporate tax changes, we have not incorporated any increase in France corporate taxes into our guidance. In addition, as usual, our guidance does not incorporate restructuring charges or additional share repurchases, and we estimate our weighted average shares to be 47,500,000.

Thank you, Jack. In late 2019, we recognized that we were operating in a new environment and that to continue to be successful, we needed a refreshed strategy to respond to tech acceleration, structural talent scarcity and increasing demand for specialist talent. This context persists today. Our latest talent shortage survey of 38,000 employers found talent shortages remain very high with 74% of companies struggling to find the skilled specialist talent they need to be successful, up from 36% a decade ago. To position us for success, we introduced our DDI strategy, diversification, digitization and innovation with 3 clear objectives: strengthen EBITDA, grow our overall revenues at or above market and position our company for many more successful decades to come.

Diversification includes increasing the weighting of higher margin offerings across each of our strong and distinct brands, Manpower, Experience and Talent Solutions, enabled by data driven insights informing us where we need to move the needle to win in the market. Our data tells us where we can expect to see growth by industry and we have evolved our organizational structures to create even deeper vertical expertise across targeted industries, including consumer goods, financials and real estate, healthcare and life sciences, industrials and tech, with talented teams equipped with the insight and specialist offerings to win in priority segments. This combined with our AI enabled dashboards sourced from our data platforms enable us to track industry trends even more closely, reducing volatility to market variances, enabling greater agility to pursue new market opportunities and prioritizing our sales team's time on the opportunities that will provide the greatest business impact. Digitization is a key enabler for productivity and innovation, providing the data and insights that create greater value for our clients and candidates while leveraging analytics and AI to drive accrual productivity and improve the candidate journey. We're pleased with our progress in this area.

Our industry leading technology platform PowerSuite enables us to harness our rich high quality global data together with AI to focus our activities where they will make the most impact, unlocking candidate potential and enabling our talent agents and recruiters to focus their time on mentoring, coaching and guiding the millions of candidates we interact with each year. Despite the challenging market conditions in 2024, we made good progress on executing our DDI strategies and competed well in many markets, setting us up for continued progress into 2025 beyond. We continue to take a laser focused approach to managing costs, adjusting to the current environment in many markets, while maintaining our investment in technology and digitization and retaining the talent we need for improved competitive performance. A big thank you to our teams around the world for all they do each day to connect even more people to meaningful work and to our clients and candidates for trusting us as our workforce and career partners. I'd now like to open the line to Q and A.

Thank you. Our first question comes from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Hi, Jack. I'm really just going to ask you to repeat the bridge between the adjusted $1.02 that we just reported and the midpoint $0.52 guided for the Q1. I know you're guiding for bigger revenue declines and Q1 is a naturally seasonally skinny quarter, so that revenue effect has more of an SG and A effect. But just if you could walk us through from the $102,000,000 like what would be a normal seasonal first quarter EPS and then layer on the factors that you gave in the prepared remarks?

Thanks for the question, Andrew. I guess I'd like to start in explaining that with the EBITDA margin, which is what it all is driven by. And as we look sequentially from Q4 to Q1, and as you referenced in my prepared remarks, walk through some of the considerations as we start the year from when we ended the year. But we're effectively moving down 60 basis points sequentially from the 2.1% that we just posted to the guide of 1.5%. And I'd say that is in line with what we've seen traditionally as we end the year and start the year.

If you go back the last 2 years, we were down about 70 bps sequentially from Q4 to Q1, take the pandemic years out of the mix. And if you go back to pre pandemic, we've been down 130 bps at times. So it really just kind of depends on what's happening, where we are now in line with what we talked through. I'd say underlying levels are generally stable across a lot of our large markets in Europe and North America. We did call out a couple areas where perhaps there's a little more pressure going into Q1.

And we did say we're a bit cautious on France currently. But I'd say when you put all that together, that is what is driving the sequential drop down in the bottom line. It's driven by the EBITDA dollars, EBITDA margin that's coming. I think on the revenue side, I think we also laid out the revenue is impacted significantly by net dispositions. So we talked about Korea and then we just announced Austria as well as part of our disposition.

That would not have been in our previous in what people were looking at in terms of expectations for Q1. So now that's being introduced and we have less days. And so we've talked about that as well. So I think when you put all that together, our revenue trend on an organic days adjusted basis is down in a range of about 2% sequentially. And I think as you consider that, you can think about APME and LatAm, which is saying a traditional lack of seasonality going into the Q1 from the Q4 as a lot of that Q4 work, seasonal work runs off and we start the year again and reset a lot of those quarterly contracts.

A bit of that in the U. S. As well. We had a relatively good Q4 in Talent Solutions on some select RPO programs that drove revenues and Manpower had an encouraging strong second half of the year in the U. S.

As well. And we see as we move into Q1, traditional seasonality in the reset of some of those contracts as well. And we don't mention it much, but Canada would be another one that's seeing a bit of an impact based on the pullback on the government public sector spend, particularly on the Experis side. So I'd say those are the main drivers when we think about revenues and bottom line earnings.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. This is Princi Thomas on for Manav. Thanks for taking my question. So I wanted to dig into the macros. If they say bad as they are, what actions will Manpower take to right size?

Thanks for the question, Prentiss. I'd say, you saw that we took some additional actions in Q4. As we look at the environment and to your question, clearly, we're seeing a lot of pressure in certain markets in Northern Europe. And that's where when we look at the actions we've been taking, are the most significant. And I'd say they pretty much follow what you're seeing in terms of the revenue trends.

So as we look at FTEs and cost reductions, Northern Europe in the 4th quarter is down 15%. So very much aligned to what we've been seeing there in the revenue trends. In Southern Europe, you'd see more mid single digit percentage declines, kind of in line with what we're seeing in certain markets in France and elsewhere. And I'd say similar in the U. S, continuing to take actions to preserve bottom line to the greatest degree possible.

But at the same time, making sure we have enough capacity on sales so that we're ready for the uptick when it begins. We did talk about the progress we're seeing in U. S. Manpower, which is really encouraging. And then we're also continuing to spend on our transformation program.

So we've been very consistent on that as well. So that continues to be an ongoing focus for us and is in the run rate. You can see that in our corporate run rate, even though we pull back in other areas to make sure we have continued capacity to continue to spend on those transformation programs. But that will continue during 2025. So I think when you put all that together, you'll see that we're taking actions in the markets that are impacted the most, while making sure that we're preserving capacity for sales in the markets, we believe we'll be very well positioned to take market share when, demand comes back.

Got it. And then switching over to more about the transition. Man's been leading in tech, but I wanted to know if there's any use cases in Gen AI being an enabler for Manpower and also any competitive threats that you're seeing within the space?

Thanks for the question, Prinsig. We as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, this was a big theme amongst all of the companies in the meeting that I attended a few weeks ago. And I would say that many companies are investing in AI. They believe in the tremendous opportunity ahead, they have yet to see any meaningful impact at scale. And a lot of that has to do with putting the right talent with the right skills in combination with GenAI.

And from our perspective, we have been preparing for this kind of technology evolution and we're very pleased to see point to point solutions on what recruiters can do much faster from a productivity perspective, be that in reviewing candidates' resumes, identifying the best fit for those candidates to the job orders and automating parts of the process. But I'd say that we are very much still at the beginning of this evolution. And it's a very exciting evolution because we are able to take our global infrastructure and technology platforms that generate significant rich data to inform and feed those models so that we can keep honing and driving greater productivity, identifying revenue growth opportunities, which we've already seen some good indications of where the likelihood is for growth and we focus our sales efforts there. But it is right at the beginning. We're extremely well placed to take advantage of this and we're excited about the opportunity.

Ultimately though, last mile delivery and the judgment and the human capabilities is what makes the difference. And that's why we're also investing in our talent agents and our recruiters, both to help them adapt to make data driven decisions, but fully leverage the tools and the insights that those tools generate to drive actions that may be different from what they traditionally would have experienced or done if they just were to go on experience and instinct. So we're very encouraged. It's early days and I think we're right where we want to be in terms of being very well placed to take advantage of this evolution as it continues.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. Your line is open.

Good morning, Jonas and Jack. Thanks for taking my questions. With regards to the U. S, you mentioned that there is an increasing level of confidence and we've certainly seen that in certain surveys. I'm just wondering, is this have you seen any indication that it's actually translating to an increase in orders?

Can you give us any sense for what's happened post election with regards to this order volume, tone of discussions with clients, anything along those lines, both in terms of the Manpower brand as well as Experis?

Thanks, Mark. Yes, as we said in our prepared remarks, the tone has changed and the level of optimism or hope is palpable, but it has yet to translate into anything meaningful in terms of change in employer behavior. So it's all about the employer confidence and we are hopeful that given the overall sentiment, this increased employer confidence translates in an increase in demand over time, but it's really too early to see any effect of that yet. As you point out, we're pleased to see that our Manpower business turned to growth in the second half of the year, which we think is positive. We're very encouraged to see that U.

S. PMI is getting closer to $250,000,000 which is another positive aspect. So there are some indicators and signals that could say it's starting to move. Manpower tends to be the brand leading the way in terms of the rebound from a cyclical industry cycle. And from an experience perspective, we're really not seeing any change in terms of demand.

It is stable at lower levels. We can still see a challenging demand environment as it relates to enterprise clients. Although our convenience clients are faring a little bit better, they're holding up better. It's still a low demand environment for both Manpower and Experis, but we're seeing some degree of, shall we say optimism looking ahead as it relates to the U. S.

Thanks for that. And then with regards to Europe, obviously, it's been difficult for multiple years. You mentioned at Davos that there was an increased sense of urgency. I mean, from your perspective, how long before we actually start seeing some improvement in the underlying macro? Obviously, we're going up again we'll increasingly go up against easier and easier comps.

But just in terms of getting to an inflection, what would be some of the catalysts that we should look for? And I'd be particularly interested in any comments with regards to France, particularly given their fiscal deficits and any commentary any more commentary with regards to like the prospects in terms of the French tax rate?

Okay. Well, stepping back looking at Europe as a whole, for many of you on the call have been tracking Europe, you'll be somewhat surprised to see that it's really shifted between Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Northern Europe used to be the engine of growth and Southern Europe was always trailing behind. And right now, it's exactly the opposite, which is precisely what we're seeing in our business as well. Italy and Spain and others are actually growing and growing well and maintaining profitability, yet Northern Europe is struggling significantly.

And I would say this, Mark, there are a number of factors that of course is impacting the performance, in particular, Northern Europe, which for us, of course, makes it even more difficult because many of the countries in Northern Europe operate bench models. So when volumes go down, it's difficult for us to quickly adjust our cost base so that we can mitigate the impact of that drop in demand. But Europe has been hit over the past couple of years with continued economic slippage against other nations, China, the U. S. It's undergoing a significant environmental transition, which is costing a lot of money and causing industry troubles in terms of the cost of energy being high.

And then of course, the Ukraine war, which is another disrupting factor. So these are elements that are really weighing especially on Northern Europe, in particular on Germany, which used to be the engine of growth, has seen the longest post war industrial decline in terms of length of time. But I would say this, aside from the clearly beneficial effects of the ending the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, that would be a positive mark. The underlying trends in terms of reduction of or estimated reduction to be announced probably by the ECB a bit later on today, continued declines in interest rates will be a positive, continued decline in inflation will be a positive. And at some point, if U.

S. Leads the way and starts to produce growth and distribute that growth as it normally does, Europe will follow along after some delay. So the timing is difficult to estimate, Mark, but we really don't see anything structurally broken in Europe and in particular in Northern Europe. We still see this as a cyclical downturn, a very challenging cyclical downturn. And lastly, I would say these changes that we heard about in terms of the action plan to really deregulate and make it easier to do business in Europe, make sure that they invest in their work green and support the green transition as well as the advent of AI, we think are positive steps as well.

And I could really sense urgency and clarity that this was becoming very,

very important from a policymaker perspective.

And I think very, very important from a policymaker perspective. And then finally coming to France. France has been in a politically very turbulent environment. The prior government lasted only a short time after presenting an aggressive budget that would reduce the deficit. The new government has taken a slightly less aggressive view on the budget and that is supposed to be voted on in March.

And they're still trying to find a way to ensure that this budget gets the approval from all the various parties. And we think that it's hard to tell. It's difficult in terms of predicting what that outcome would be. But all the parties in France know that no elections can occur before June. So I guess my guess would be that the likelihood that it passes could it could come to pass in March.

But we will continue to monitor the situation very carefully in France because it is going to be an important aspect of how we move forward. And just as in the U. S. And elsewhere, it's all about employer confidence. And trends that we are seeing in France are impacted by employers, that are still anticipating an economic growth in 2025, although more subdued than would have been forecast maybe 8 months ago.

So they're still thinking this is going to be a growth economy, but they are very hesitant in terms of adding to their payrolls. And into your last question on taxes, I'll switch it over to Jack.

Yes. On the tax rate, Mark, it really is too early to tell at this stage. We do know that as part of the updated budget, there is a component in there that would implement a higher tax rate for large companies. We would fall into that bucket. But it really there's a lot of discussions happening on components of the budget.

So it's really hard to say what that is going to be. As I mentioned in my guide, it's not in our forecast. Any change to the current French tax corporate tax rate is not factored in. If something does get enacted, as Jonas mentioned, through the beginning of March, we will adjust our effective tax rate for any changes coming out of any enacted rates rate changes in France as part of the new budget.

Great. Can I sneak one more in just on the dispositions we've had Korea and now Austria? Any more anticipated? And can you discuss the pros and cons of those dispositions?

Well, Mike, we're always looking at our geographic portfolio of where we're present with our own subsidiaries or where we think that maybe a different setup would be more beneficial for value creation. And our estimation was that Korea is a country that is where we have a strong business, but the outlook in terms of its growth rates, the stability of the country in terms of what can happen in terms of legislation affecting our industry was less promising. And we had a very good partner that we could move with that is going to be able to compete better in those local markets. And this has been a process that we've been looking at each country, looking at our geo footprint is something that we've been doing for a number of years optimizing this footprint, so that we really maximize our value creation opportunity in many markets. And over the past number of years, we've transitioned about 17 countries to franchise operations.

And in most of those cases, they have actually seen some very good progress and we're very pleased with how this has evolved. And as you can imagine, there have been other circumstances such as Russia where we in a timely way exited that market just ahead of the invasion. So we take a balanced view of opportunity, value creation as well as risk and we will continue to make that assessment also in other markets and we will of course keep everyone informed of when we make any changes to that geo portfolio.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. Your line is open.

Good morning. I appreciate you taking the questions. One thing I wanted to dig into was the Talent Solutions brand. And I think it's back to year over year growth for the 2nd consecutive quarter now. You got some nice positive trends in RPO and MSP, it sounds like.

But at the same time, the staffing businesses are still challenged. So just kind of wondering if you could talk about what's driving the improvement in MSP and RPO and how you reconcile the difference in trends versus the staffing business there?

Trevor, this is Jack. Yes, I'd be happy to talk to that in terms of some of the trends I talked to when we were going through the brands. Maybe starting with MSP within Talent Solutions. So MSP has been growing steadily the entire year. And actually, we started the year closer to flattish.

And then as we've talked about, every quarter has actually gotten stronger from that point forward. So really strong double digit growth in the 4th quarter, higher than the growth level in the 3rd quarter. And so our business just continues to perform very, very well in the market. We view ourselves as a leader of MSP and it's certainly coming through in the trends that we've been seeing. RPO crossed over to growth in the Q4 globally for us.

So after some significant declines in the first half of the year, which reflected the market, we moved to a very modest decline in Q3 and then crossed over to growth in Q4. And RPO has been strong, particularly in our U. S. Business. We did mention in our prepared remarks, we had some select clients that actually had some very good seasonal ramp up work through the Q4.

So that was a bit of a bright spot. Still are not seeing broad based hiring increases in line with what Jonas was talking about earlier. But we are encouraged by the select programs that have been quite strong and we'll continue to monitor more the broader side of that. And then I'd say lastly on Talent Solutions, right management, after growing pretty consistently in the 1st 9 months of the year, we did see outplacement volumes start to soften in the 4th quarter. So we did move into a very slight decline from a revenue perspective, closer to flat on an overall GP dollar progression year over year.

ManpowerGroup (MAN) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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