Adecco Group, the world’s biggest staffing group, said hiring has slowed since the start of the fourth quarter, confirming a weaker trend as economic uncertainty makes companies more cautious. The Swiss company’s results are closely watched for clues about the health of the broader global economy. On Tuesday it said a fall in demand for car industry workers along with a slowdown in manufacturing and retail jobs in Europe weighed on its revenues, which grew just 1% in September-October from a year earlier. For the July-September quarter, revenue growth — when adjusted for trading days and currency changes — halved to 2%, from 4% in the second quarter, it said. The company said the situation reflects earlier comments about tough markets in Europe and that sales from placing office and blue-collar workers in the US and Britain were flat in the three months to September 30. “In September we said we didn’t see the growth picking up after the summer period … the growth we saw is not comin...

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