Trading Statement

10 January 2008

                                   HAYS PLC                                    

           Trading statement for the quarter ended 31 December 2007            

Comment

Commenting on trading for the quarter ended 31 December 2007, Alistair Cox,
Chief Executive of Hays plc, said:

"During this quarter we have delivered excellent growth. We have continued to
invest in our business and have experienced strong demand across our markets .
Having reviewed the business in my first few months with Hays, I see good
opportunities to strengthen our market leading position in the UK and I have
been impressed by the exceptional opportunities for rapid and sustainable
growth in our International specialist recruitment markets. Our International
business, which now represents 40% of the Group's net fees, has grown
organically by 45% in this quarter and is still at an early stage of
development. On 17 April, we will hold an investor day, when we will discuss in
detail the opportunities ahead of us and how we plan to capitalise on them."

Group

Growth in net fees in the quarter ended 31 December         Growth       
2007 (versus the same period last year)                                  
                                                         actual      LFL*
                                                                         
By region                                                                
                                                                         
         United Kingdom & Ireland                           13%       11%
                                                                         
         Asia Pacific                                       61%       45%
                                                                         
         Continental Europe & Rest of World                 49%       45%
                                                                         
         Total                                              27%       23%
                                                                         
By segment                                                               
                                                                         
         Temporary                                          17%       14%
                                                                         
         Permanent                                          39%       33%
                                                                         
Total                                                       27%       23%
                                                                         

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

Hays plc, the leading global specialist recruitment group, has had another
excellent quarter. In the quarter ended 31 December 2007, Group net fees grew
by 23% on a like-for-like basis versus the same period last year. During the
quarter, we added six offices to the network and, as planned, the Group
increased the number of consultants by 5% to over 5,700 with most of the
increase in consultants being in the International business.

As in recent quarters, the permanent placement market has continued to grow at
a faster rate than the temporary placement market. Accordingly, our net fees
increased by 33% from permanent placements and by 14% from temporary placements
on a like-for-like basis versus the same period last year.

United Kingdom & Ireland

In the United Kingdom & Ireland, we had strong like-for-like net fee growth of
11%. The Accountancy & Finance business continued the progress it made in the
first quarter. Construction & Property benefited from strong demand,
particularly in the commercial sector, and the Information Technology business
made progress following the investment in the second half of last year. Our
Other Specialist Recruitment Activities, which now represent 28% of the United
Kingdom & Ireland net fees, continue to grow rapidly benefiting from our
significant investment in this area.

Asia Pacific

In Asia Pacific, our businesses continued their excellent track record,
achieving like-for-like growth in net fees of 45%. In Australia & New Zealand,
our market leading businesses recorded exceptional performances across all of
their specialist activities and regions. We continued to roll out our newer
specialisms across the network and we opened another office in Melbourne. In
Asia, our businesses continued their strong momentum across the region.

Continental Europe & Rest of World (`RoW')

In Continental Europe & RoW, like-for-like net fees also increased by 45% .
This outstanding growth stems from our significant investment in the region,
the impact of deregulation in key markets, and an increasing awareness and
willingness by both candidates and clients to use specialist recruitment
consultants. All countries contributed to this performance, with Germany,
France, Belgium, Spain and Canada performing particularly well. During the
quarter, we opened offices in France (Nancy), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and
Poland (Gdansk).

Share buy-back

We have continued with the share buy-back programme. During the quarter, we
purchased 14.9 million shares at a cost of £19.2 million (total buy-back in six
months ended 31 December 2007: 36.0 million shares at a cost of £51.8 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
with net debt increasing following the payment of the full year dividend and
the buy-back of shares. The balance sheet remains strong.

Board changes

As previously announced, the following Board changes were made on 15 November:

  * Denis Waxman retired as CEO and Alistair Cox succeeded him;
   
  * Richard Smelt joined as a non-executive Director;
   
  * Brian Wallace retired as a non-executive Director;
   
  * Lesley Knox assumed the role of Senior Independent Director; and
   
  * Paul Harrison was appointed as Chairman of the Audit Committee.
   
Outlook

Overall demand for our services continues to be strong, particularly in
Continental Europe and Asia Pacific. Whilst mindful of the current economic
uncertainties, the Board is confident in its outlook for the year.

                                   - ends -                                    

Enquiries

Hays plc                                                                     
                                                                             
Paul Venables                Finance Director       + 44 (0) 20 73832266     
                                                                             
Martin Abell                 Investor Relations     + 44 (0) 20 73832266     
                                                                             
Brunswick                                                                    
                                                                             
Gill Ackers / Alexa von                             + 44 (0) 20 7404 5959    
Wietzlow                                                                     

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 10 January
2008. 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                                         29427459#                

Reporting calendar

Half year results for 6 months ended 31 December 2007      26 February 2008    
                                                                               
Interim management statement for quarter ending 31 March   10 April 2008       
2008                                                                           
                                                                               
Investor day                                               17 April 2008       
                                                                               
Trading statement for quarter ending 30 June 2008          10 July 2008        
                                                                               
Full year results for year ending 30 June 2008             2 September 2008    

Note to editors

Hays plc is the leading global specialist recruitment group. It is market
leader in the UK and 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; and
   
  * 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 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 is unaudited.