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Posts sales and profit ahead of forecasts

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Shares trade 9.5% higher

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Flexible recruitment improving, permanent still sluggish

(Recasts with CEO comments on AI, share price)

By John Revill

ZURICH, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Adecco has so far

seen only a limited impact from artificial intelligence

technology on the jobs market, Chief Executive Denis Machuel

said on Thursday, as the staffing company reported

better-than-expected third-quarter results.

Concerns are mounting that AI is rapidly displacing human

workers - with the trend evident in recent corporate layoffs

such as the 14,000 job cuts recently announced by Amazon ( AMZN )

.

However, Adecco, which provides temporary and permanent

staff to industries ranging from banking to logistics, has seen

some layoffs at its client companies attributed to AI, but it

was not a "massive wave," Machuel said.

"We haven't seen yet a revolution. I would say the impact on

the labour market is still early stage," Machuel told reporters.

"We see some impact but if I look at the layoffs, some are

more related to other arbitration, productivity improvement, not

necessarily related to AI," he added.

He was speaking after Adecco reported a 1% rise in

third-quarter sales to 5.78 billion euros ($6.74 billion) in the

three months to the end of September, slightly ahead of analyst

forecasts.

When adjusted for trading days and currency moves, the

company's revenue increased by 3.4% from a year ago, and was 3%

higher than in the second quarter.

Based on early indications, Adecco expects its sales to grow

by the same 3% quarterly rate in its final quarter of 2025.

Third quarter net income fell 10% to 89 million euros,

compared with a forecast drop to 70 million euros.

The company's shares surged by 9.5% in early trading, with

analysts at Bank Vontobel saying the results were well above

expectations.

The company's business providing temporary staff was

improving, Machuel said, although permanent recruitment remained

sluggish.

"There's still uncertainty, and when there's uncertainty,

you hesitate to recruit permanently," Machuel said.

However, growth in flexible and temporary hiring showed "the

economy is not that bad," he said.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)