‘Nobody is leaving unless they have to’: why workers aren’t moving jobs

Dirk Hahn is a recruiter’s bête noire. The 55-year-old joined the recruitment agency Hays as a sales representative in 1997 and spent years rising through the ranks to chief executive, a role he took on last year. His firm makes money from people jumping jobs — a foreign concept to Hahn. “I am probably the nightmare candidate for Hays,” laughed the company man.

It was one of the few jokes Hahn cracked last week. On Thursday, his company posted a dismal set of full-year financial results, including a 92 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £14.7 million. Hahn said that the FTSE 250 firm, which employs 11,000 people across 33 countries, was battling an unprecedented downturn. “This is not a normal market, it is