Questions 59 to 62 refer to the text below:

Recruiters eye Brics to build business

Brazil’s dream of shedding its middle-income status is over, some Bric observers have said. But to UK recruitment agencies, the South American powerhouse still offers something that is much harder to fi nd close to home – huge growth potential. Although Brazil’s gross domestic product is estimated to have notched up less than 1 per cent growth in 2012, UK recruitment groups are still opening offi ces there and expanding deeper into the region.

“You will get these hiccups along the way,” says Steve Ingham, chief executive of recruitment agency PageGroup (formerly Michael Page International). “The economy won’t always be as strong, but we will continue to invest through the cycle such that our endgame is to have a lot more offi ces and a lot more people in [Latin America].”

His company was one of the fi rst big UK recruiters to enter the region, about 13 years ago. There are now more than a dozen offi ces and about 600 staff in Latin America operating under PageGroup. Almost 10 per cent of PageGroup’s business is generated in the region but Mr Ingham “easily imagines” that rising to a fi fth in the near future. “Our expectations are enormous,” he says, highlighting the potential beyond Brazil, in countries such as Mexico and Chile. “We’re not just depending on Brazil[to generate fees] any more.”
Other recruiters have followed suit, as part of their expansion away from the saturated UK market to fastergrowing economies in Asia and beyond. Hays recently opened offi ces in Colombia and Chile, and Brazil is already the sixth-largest country in the group, based on net fees.

Source: Vanessa Kortekaas, Financial Times, February 4, 2013