Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Page International Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest recruitment company, will reduce the number of job cuts it makes even as it enters a “challenging” third quarter.

“There will be some headcount that will have to come out but not a significantly large amount,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ingham said in a telephone interview. “We can’t change the headcount for the sake of one holiday month.”

Michael Page will also post losses from some of the smaller countries in Europe that it operates in, rather than exit the locations, Ingham said. “If we were to reduce headcount further we would be closing offices or countries and we have no intention of doing that.”

The recruiter said today first-half profit more than halved as companies continued to cut jobs in the recession. The number of people seeking work in the U.K. in the three months through June rose 220,000 to 2.44 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Net income in the six months ended June 30 fell to 28.3 million pounds ($46.2 million), or 8.7 pence per share, from 58.9 million pounds, or 18 pence, a year earlier. Sales declined 27 percent to 364.7 million pounds, the London-based company said in a statement.

The company will maintain its interim dividend payment at 2.88 pence per share.

The shares slumped 16.8 pence, or 5.3 percent, to 303.4 pence in London trading, giving the company a market value of 977 million pounds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London jbrowning9@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 17, 2009 12:00 EDT