Transaction in Own Shares

Hays PLC
18 April 2005

                                    Hays plc
                         ------------------------------
                             Purchase of own shares
                         ------------------------------

Hays plc announces that it has purchased the following number of its ordinary
shares of £0.01 each on the London Stock Exchange via UBS Investment Bank.

Ordinary shares:


Date of purchase:                                           18 April 2005

Number of ordinary shares purchased:                        1,638,682

Highest price paid per share:                               134p

Lowest price paid per share:                                133.5p

Volume weighted average price per share:                    133.8837p

Hays intends to hold the purchased shares in treasury.


Following the purchase of these shares, Hays holds 52,846,781 of its ordinary
shares in treasury and has 1,683,044,341 ordinary shares in issue (excluding
treasury shares).


                      This information is provided by RNS
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