Jack McGinnis: Yeah, Tobey, I think great question. I’d say overall, I think the main punch line is our strategy has not changed. And you’re right, we have been very careful, but where we have made acquisitions has been on the IT resourcing side, and that’s worked out very well for us, as we think about the acquisition we did in 2021, that is performing very well. Jonas talked about the convenience component of the Experis in the US, so performing better than the enterprise sector. So that continues to be an area for us as we look forward. And in the current environment, you’re right — the current environment has not been very conducive to acquisitions candidly. And what you’ve seen us do in the meantime is return excess cash via our share repurchase program, and the dividend continues to be a high priority for us as well.
So you should expect that approach to continue. And again, we are very careful when it comes to acquisitions, so we do a very, very detailed analysis. We look at many different filters, most importantly cultural fit and those type of items. But I would say, that is something that more realistically would be something to think about as the environment starts to improve going forward. But I’d say that’s kind of where we are currently.
Tobey Sommer: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Steinerman with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
Stephanie Yee: Hi. Good morning. This is Stephanie Yee, stepping in for Andrew. We wanted to ask — so not surprise or you know obviously the U.S. temporary help in the BLS figures have been declining for about two years now which is rather unusual. I guess what do you think the shape of the recovery will be for Manpower U.S., and the staffing industry in the U.S., given this unusual dynamic?
Jonas Prising: Thanks Stephanie. Yeah, no — as you say, you know, we agree that 17 consecutive months of temp worker declines in the U.S., without a recession or a significantly cooling economy is frankly unprecedented. If you had the preceding six months of declining growth, That’s 23 months of declining growth in our industry in the U.S. So as I mentioned earlier, we believe that there is a lag effect that is distorted this time by the pandemic and the post-pandemic hiring where employers today are really holding onto their workforces. They are absorbing and creating the flexibility by reducing the use of temporary staff, increasing as you saw in the BLS numbers of last month, the use of part-time work. So they are pulling just about every measure that they can to improve the flexibility without touching the permanent payrolls in a more significant way.
But given the strength of the economy and if we assume that there is not a full blown recession, it’s likely that employers will continue to remain cautious until they feel that the uncertainties that they are cautious about clear up to some degree. And at that point, we believe we’ll see a very good return to the use of temporary staff. Because temporary staff is a fantastic way to provide flexibility for any employer across industries, and especially in an uncertain environment. And many of those workers, you know, in various skill levels, then also become integrated into, you know, the employers’ payrolls through conversions over time and we’ve seen strong conversion levels occur today. The strength of that rebound of course Stephanie is very difficult to estimate because it’s really a question of what’s going to happen to the overall economy and what is the snapback.
Right now, the global growth scenario is highly dependent on US economic growth, which is one of the highest in the world and of course being the major economy that’s sort of setting the tone for everyone else. So we are pulling along the growth at a global level right now. But we think when the clouds lift and in particular for us from a Manpower perspective, the manufacturing sector starts to get some more traction. The enterprise on the tech side really start to activate the postponed and delayed technology transformation projects, we think both from a Manpower perspective and Experis perspective, and then also from a Talent Solutions perspective that we’ll see very good evolution of those services. It’s just that right now, our industry is bearing the brunt all of the slowing and you can’t really see it in the broader BLS numbers.
But essentially we feel this is a cyclical downturn distorted by anomalies created by the pandemic And eventually this will sort of flatten out and we’re therefore pleased to see the stabilization not only in the U.S. and U.K., now several more countries. Our two other big operations, France and Italy. We estimate will also stabilize into our second quarter. And that gives us the platform to hope for a recovery that will then manifest itself to increase demand and improve numbers for all of our brands.
Stephanie Yee: Okay, great. I really appreciate the perspective. Thank you.
Jonas Prising: Thanks, Stephanie.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Stephanie Moore: Hi. Good morning. Thank you. Actually, this might be a good follow-up to even the last question. I’ve maybe kind of digging into that a little bit further. So effectively, from your clearly — pretty extensive knowledge of past cycles and also the conversations you’re seeing — you’re having with customers. So I guess I’m just trying to kind of — to be a little bit more specific here. So in your opinion, What needs to happen broadly to go from this period of admittedly stabilization to the inflection to the positive side? So effectively what you’re saying is we do need to see that unemployment rise first and the economy kind of take a step down or could this be different, you know, this cycle different from prior? I’d love your thoughts there.
