Interim Management Statement

11 October 2007

                                   HAYS PLC                                    

     Interim Management Statement for the quarter ended 30 September 2007      

Comment

Commenting on trading for the quarter ended 30 September 2007, Denis Waxman,
Chief Executive of Hays plc, said:

"I am pleased to report that in our first quarter we have made a strong start
to the year built on the momentum generated in the second half of last year. We
have achieved strong growth in net fees and continued with our investment
plans, particularly in the International business. Although we are mindful of
the increased economic uncertainty, we continue to see strong demand across our
markets and fully expect to continue our good progress this year."

Group

Growth in net fees in the quarter ended 30 September        Growth       
2007 (versus the same period last year)                                  
                                                                         
                                                         actual      LFL*
                                                                         
By region                                                                
                                                                         
        United Kingdom & Ireland                            14%       12%
                                                                         
        Asia Pacific                                        50%       40%
                                                                         
        Continental Europe & Rest of World                  40%       41%
                                                                         
        Total                                               24%       21%
                                                                         
By segment                                                               
                                                                         
        Temporary                                           16%       14%
                                                                         
        Permanent                                           34%       30%
                                                                         
        Total                                               24%       21%
                                                                         

* LFL is like-for-like growth, which represents organic growth of continuing
activities at constant currency

Hays plc, the Specialist Recruitment Group, has made a strong start to the
financial year. In the quarter ended 30 September 2007, Group net fees grew by
21% on a like-for-like basis versus the same period last year. During the
quarter, the Group increased the number of consultants by 9% as planned, and
added nine offices to the network, all of which were in the International
businesses.

The contrasting conditions between the market for permanent staff and the
market for temporary staff has continued. As a result, our net fees increased
by 30% in the permanent placement market and by 14% in the temporary placement
market on a like-for-like basis versus the same period last year.

United Kingdom & Ireland

In the United Kingdom & Ireland, we had strong net fee growth of 12% on a
like-for-like basis versus last year. The Accountancy & Finance business
continued to make good progress building on its improvement in the second half
of last year. Construction & Property benefited from strong demand and the
Information Technology business made steady progress following the investment
in the second half of last year. We continue to invest heavily in the newer
specialisms and they are performing strongly.

Asia Pacific

In Asia Pacific, our businesses continued their excellent momentum from last
year, achieving growth in net fees of 40% on a like-for-like basis versus last
year. In Australia & New Zealand, where we are market leader, the business
recorded exceptional performances across all its specialist activities. We
continued to roll out our newer specialisms across the network and we opened
another office in Brisbane. In Asia, our newly established businesses in Japan,
China, Hong Kong and Singapore all performed well and we opened a second office
in Japan (Osaka).

Continental Europe & Rest of World (RoW)

In Continental Europe & RoW, net fees increased by 41% on a like-for-like basis
versus the same period last year. This outstanding growth stems from our
significant investment in the region and the considerable structural growth in
the market. All countries in this region contributed to this performance, with
Germany, France, Belgium, Spain and Canada performing particularly strongly.

During the quarter, we started operations in Hungary (Budapest) and opened
further offices in Germany (Stuttgart), Spain (Barcelona and Seville), Canada
(Edmonton), Switzerland (Basel) and the Czech Republic (Ostrava). Following the
acquisition last year of James Harvard, we continue to rapidly roll out our
Pharmaceutical specialism across Europe, introducing it into Switzerland and
Portugal during the quarter.

Share buy-back

We have continued with the share buy-back programme. During the quarter, we
purchased 21.1 million shares at a cost of £32.6 million. As previously stated,
the company expects to buy-back a minimum of £75 million of shares during this
financial year.

Cash flow and balance sheet

The cash flow performance in the quarter has been in line with expectations and
the balance sheet remains strong with net debt modestly increasing during the
quarter reflecting seasonal cash flow trends and the ongoing share buy-back
programme.

Outlook

Our markets continue to be strong, particularly in Continental Europe and Asia
Pacific, and the business is well positioned to take advantage of these
conditions. Whilst the Board is mindful of the increased economic uncertainty,
our outlook is unchanged from when we last reported on 4 September when we
stated that the Board is confident in its outlook for the year.

                                   - ends -                                    

Enquiries

Hays plc                                                                     
Paul Venables                Finance Director       + 44 (0) 20 7628 9999    
Martin Abell                 Investor Relations     + 44 (0) 20 7628 9999    
                                                                             
Brunswick                                                                    
Gill Ackers / Alexa von Wietzlow                    + 44 (0) 20 7404 5959    
                                                                     

Conference call

Paul Venables and Martin Abell of Hays plc will conduct a conference call for
analysts and investors at 9:00am United Kingdom time on Thursday 11 October
2007. The dial in details are as follows:

Dial-in number                                      [phone]     
                                                                             
Password                                            Hays                     
                                                                             
The call will be recorded and available for playback for seven days as       
follows:                                                                     
                                                                             
Replay dial-in number                               [phone]     
                                                                             
Access code                                         19544276#                

Reporting calendar

We expect to issue a trading statement for the quarter ended 31 December 2007
on 10 January 2008. Accordingly, we do not expect to make a preclose trading
statement in December as we have done on previous occasions.

We expect to issue our interim results on 26 February 2008.

Note to editors

Hays plc is the market leader in specialist recruitment in the UK and in
Australia, and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe. For the year
ended 30 June 2007:

  * the Group had revenues of £2.1 billion, net fees of £633.6 million and
    operating profit of £216.1 million
   
  * the Group employed 7,753 staff operating from 376 offices in 25 countries
    across 17 specialisms
   
  * the Group placed circa 68,000 candidates into permanent jobs during the
    year and paid circa 46,000 temporary workers weekly
   
  * the temporary placement business represented 51% of net fees and the
    permanent business represented 49% of net fees
   
  * the United Kingdom & Ireland represented 66% of Group net fees, Asia
    Pacific represented 18% and Continental Europe & Rest of World represented
    16%
   
Important notice

Certain statements in this preliminary announcement are forward looking
statements. By their nature, forward looking statements involve a number of
risks, uncertainties or assumptions that could cause actual results or events
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements.
Forward looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be
taken as representation that such trends or activities will continue in the
future. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking
statements.

All information shown for the quarter ended 30 September is unaudited.