Adecco, Manpower down after exclusive Reuters CEO interview

Shares of Adecco, the world’s largest staffing firm, fell on Dec. 15 after an exclusive Reuters interview with the CEO gave investors insight into developments in the staffing industry as companies across the world shed jobs and scale back on hiring. A week later, U.S. rival Manpower gave a profit warning and saw its shares fall 12 percent. Adecco CEO Dieter Scheiff told Reuters he expected 2009 to be a very difficult year, but that the group was sticking to its mid-term margin target and would cut jobs if necessary in a bid to preserve margins. The interview was picked up by Bloomberg as well as by S&P.