ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE:MAN) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 20, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Jonas Prising - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer

Jack McGinnis - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mark Marcon - Baird

Jeff Silber - BMO Capital Markets

Kartik Mehta - Northcoast Research

Stephanie Yee - JP Morgan

George Tong - Goldman Sachs

Ronan Kennedy - Barclays

Jasper Bibb - Truist Securities

Operator

Welcome to ManpowerGroup’s first quarter earnings results conference call.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode until the Q&A session of today’s conference. This call will be recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

Now I will turn the call over to ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO, Jonas Prising. Sir, you may begin.

Jonas Prising

Welcome to the first quarter conference call for 2023. Our Chief Financial Officer, Jack McGinnis is with me today. For your convenience, we have included our prepared remarks within the Investor Relations section of our website at manpowergroup.com.

I will start by going through some of the highlights of the quarter, then Jack will go through the first quarter results and guidance for the second quarter of 2023. I will then share some concluding thoughts before we start our Q&A session.

Jack will now cover the Safe Harbor language.

Jack McGinnis

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.

Jonas Prising

Thanks Jack.

In our previous earnings call, we reported that organizations remained focused on maintaining and augmenting headcount for essential talent, though we were also seeing softening of demand for staffing services due to increased economic uncertainty. This softening trend continued into the first quarter of this year with demand for staffing services slowing further, most notably in the U.S. Europe continued to experience a modest decrease in demand in most major markets during the quarter, following a trend that started early in 2022.

After months of a remarkably strong U.S. labor market, we are now seeing more companies across various industries recalibrating their workforces after a period of bullish hiring, shifting their focus towards more intentional hiring for specialist skills and in-demand roles, delaying hiring decisions and reducing their demand for contingent workforce, in line with dynamics we have seen in past economic slowdowns. Although this cautious environment is resulting in lower volumes of staffing activity in the U.S. and Europe, we continue to support our clients by delivering the in-demand specialist resources they need in this environment, and are also playing a big role in replenishing their permanent workforce in critical parts of their businesses.