FAQs for Q4 FY2024

Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.

Q1. Please explain the guidance and outlook of each segment for FY2025.

Please refer to “2. Consolidated Financial Guidance for FY2025” on page 11 of the earnings release for Q4 FY2024.

https://recruit-holdings.com/files/ir/library/upload/Recruit_202503Q4_earnings_en.pdf#guidance

Q2. Please provide an update on the share repurchases announced on February 28, 2025.

The Company’s Board of Directors resolved on February 28, 2025 to conduct a share repurchase of its common stock.

The total number of shares to be repurchased was 52.0 million shares (maximum) (up to 3.51% of total number of shares issued

and outstanding (excluding treasury stock)), and the total purchase price is 450.0 billion yen (maximum). The repurchase period

is from March 3, 2025 to December 23, 2025.

Subsequently, the Company’s Board of Directors resolved on April 25, 2025 to expand the limit of the share repurchase to 62.0

million shares (maximum) (up to 4.23% of total number of shares issued and outstanding (excluding treasury stock)).

As of April 30, 2025, 42.5 million shares have been repurchased at the total price of 340.6 billion yen on an execution date

basis.

Please refer to the following.

“Recruit Holdings Announces Share Repurchases” released on February 28, 2025

https://recruit-holdings.com/en/newsroom/20250228_0001/

“Recruit Holdings Announces the Determination of Matters Related to the Repurchase of Own Shares (Expansion of

Repurchase Limit)” released on April 25, 2025

https://recruit-holdings.com/en/newsroom/20250425_0001/

“Status of Share Repurchases” released on May 1, 2025

https://recruit-holdings.com/en/newsroom/20250501_0001/

Q3. Please explain the organizational change as of April 1, 2025.

The Company transferred all businesses in HR Solutions in Matching & Solutions including the job advertising business and the

placement business to HR Technology as of April 1, 2025 in order to accelerate its Simplify Hiring strategy in Japan.

The job advertising business in HR Technology Japan consists of Indeed and Indeed PLUS which have a PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

pricing model, and other job boards including Rikunabi Next and TownWORK which are linked to Indeed PLUS.

The major brands of the placement business are Recruit Agent and Recruit Direct Scout, which generate revenue by charging

clients for the matching of job seekers and employers.

Also, Matching & Solutions will be renamed “Marketing Matching Technologies” in FY2025.

Q4. Please describe the labor market dynamics in the global HR Matching market during Q4.

On the surface, global job markets appeared largely steady throughout January to March in Q4, marked by continued low

unemployment, limited layoff activity, and decent hiring demand. But signs emerged of slowing momentum in many advanced

economies.

In the US, overall unemployment remained near historically low levels, job postings generally held steady (up 8% at the end of

March compared to pre-pandemic levels), and layoff activity remained muted throughout the quarter. But a handful of indicators

signaled more concerning trends during the quarter. Unemployment drifted upward from 4% in January to 4.2% in March. Both

the quits rate and hires rate hovered well below pre-pandemic levels throughout the quarter, signaling a lack of confidence

among job seekers and employers, respectively. Government hiring was a main driver of employment growth throughout 2024,

but the large-scale reductions in the federal workforce that marked much of the first few months of the year began to show signs

of trickling down into state and local government hiring. While initial unemployment claims remain low, continued claims are

hovering near their highest levels since 2021 – a sign that it is taking many unemployed workers longer to find a new job.

Consumer spending fell in January for the first time in almost two years, and did not rebound as strongly as expected in

February, and both consumer sentiment and future inflation expectations deteriorated throughout the quarter.

Europe

In Europe, the economies in France, Germany and the UK all remain fairly weak overall. Despite a surprisingly strong GDP

performance in February, the overall level of job postings in the UK remains far lower than peer nations (17.1% below the

pre-pandemic baseline as of the end of March), and employer confidence is sour. In Germany, while hiring demand overall

remains comfortably above pre-pandemic levels (+21% as of March 31), job postings were lower at the end of March than at the

start of the year in every industry tracked by Indeed. In France, the activity rate (the share of people aged 15-64 in employment

or actively looking for work) fell to 74.4%, largely due to a slowdown in apprenticeships, which negatively impacts youth

participation. Even so, despite weakness in these three headline European economies, overall business activity in the larger

euro zone grew at its fastest pace in seven months in March on the back of a rebound in manufacturing activity.

Japan

In Japan, employer demand remains consistently strong. Historically, Japanese wage growth has been relatively rigid and

muted, but has been driven up recently by a combination of factors including inflation-driven wage re-negotiations,

government-led wage hike requests and other policy-related factors. This spring’s annual wage negotiations between

businesses and trade unions resulted in an agreed upon overall wage hike of 5.46%, and a wage hike of 5.09% for smaller

businesses, both the highest such figures since the early 1990s.

Appendix

Historical Results of Operations by Each Segment

FY2023

FY2024

Consolidated Operating Results (In billions of yen)

Revenue

YoY %

Adj. EBITDA

YoY %

850.8 855.1 866.7 843.7 3,416.4 901.5 897.1 896.9 861.7 3,557.4

0.9% (2.7)% (1.5)% 1.9% (0.4)% 6.0% 4.9% 3.5% 2.1% 4.1%

165.9 162.2 158.2 111.9 598.3 179.0 188.1 179.6 132.0 678.8

8.9% 11.7% 14.4% 2.6% 9.8% 7.9% 16.0% 13.5% 17.9% 13.5%

Adj. EBITDA margin

HR Technology (In millions of USD)

19.5% 19.0% 18.3% 13.3% 17.5% 19.9% 21.0% 20.0% 15.3% 19.1%

Revenue

YoY %

Revenue

Europe and Others

YoY %

1,317 1,231 1,129 1,162 4,841 1,251 1,260 1,184 1,188 4,886

(18.6)% (23.5)% (21.3)% (13.1)% (19.3)% (5.0)% 2.4%

4.9%

424

8.5%

198

2.2%

425

6.1%

239

0.9%

1,716

3.5%

779

437

428

390

401

1,659

422

(3.5)% 3.5%

155 186

443

119

118

123

142

503

Revenue

YoY %

Japan

29.3% 57.5% 61.2% 68.6% 54.8%

Revenue

YoY %

1,875 1,778 1,643 1,706 7,004 1,829 1,890 1,807 1,854 7,382

(14.2)% (18.2)% (17.2)% (10.1)% (15.0)% (2.5)% 6.3% 10.0% 8.7% 5.4%

Total

HR Technology (In billions of yen)

Revenue

YoY %

Revenue

Europe and Others

YoY %

181.1 178.2 167.1 172.8 699.4 195.0 188.6 180.5 181.3 745.6

(13.7)% (20.0)% (17.7)% (2.3)% (13.9)% 7.7%

5.9%

66.4

8.0%

64.6

4.9%

64.9

6.6%

261.9

9.3%

118.9

60.2

61.9

57.7

59.6

239.6

65.8

9.4%

24.1

16.4

17.0

18.1

21.0

72.7

7.2% 11.8% 8.9%

27.9 30.3 36.5

Revenue

YoY %

Japan

46.5% 63.6% 66.9% 73.9% 63.5%

Revenue

YoY %

257.9 257.2 243.0 253.5 1,011.8 285.1 283.0 275.4 282.8 1,126.5

(9.1)% (14.4)% (13.4)% 0.9% (9.3)% 10.6% 10.0% 13.3% 11.5% 11.3%

Adj. EBITDA

YoY %

98.1

2.7%

92.1

1.0%

80.7

73.3

344.3 100.2 107.0

98.9

97.7

404.1

Total

2.4% (4.4)% 0.6%

2.2% 16.2% 22.6% 33.3% 17.3%

Adj. EBITDA

margin

38.1% 35.8% 33.2% 28.9% 34.0% 35.2% 37.8% 35.9% 34.6% 35.9%

Matching & Solutions (In billions of yen)

Revenue

YoY %

80.8

11.3% 5.5% (0.8)% (4.9)% 2.5% (7.4)% (6.2)% (13.6)% (11.9)% (9.7)%

20.4 15.5 13.1 13.4 62.6 18.1 16.1 11.0 8.6 54.0

74.1

73.1

76.8

305.0

74.8

69.5

63.2

67.7

275.3

Adj. EBITDA¹

HR Solutions

YoY %

Adj. EBITDA

margin¹

Revenue

YoY %

24.2% (0.9)% 8.4% (33.2)% (2.8)% (11.2)% 4.3% (16.4)% (36.2)% (13.8)%

25.3% 21.0% 18.0% 17.5% 20.5% 24.3% 23.3% 17.4% 12.7% 19.6%

116.6 123.4 123.6 128.6 492.4 125.5 133.3 132.8 137.8 529.5

11.2% 10.3% 7.1%

31.4 39.7 42.1

7.9% 9.0.% 7.7%

24.6 138.0 40.3

8.0%

46.6

7.4%

45.8

7.1%

27.0

7.5%

159.9

Adj. EBITDA¹

Marketing Solutions

YoY %

(7.9)% (3.0)% 7.7% (23.8)% (5.9)% 28.5% 17.3% 8.8%

26.9% 32.2% 34.1% 19.2% 28.0% 32.1% 35.0% 34.6% 19.6% 30.2%

2.5 2.5 2.6 2.6 10.3 2.5 2.7 2.6 3.1 11.0

(14.7)% (13.7)% (1.0)% (11.5)% (10.4)% 0.9% 5.7% (2.6)% 21.2% 6.3%

(9.3) (9.0) (8.8) (9.7) (37.0) (6.7) (6.5) (6.6) (7.9) (27.9)

199.9 200.1 199.5 208.1 807.8 202.9 205.5 198.7 208.7 816.0

9.6% 15.9%

Adj. EBITDA

margin¹

Revenue

Others and

Eliminations

YoY %

Adj. EBITDA

Revenue

YoY %

Adj. EBITDA

YoY %

10.8% 8.1%

42.5 46.2

3.9%

46.4

2.5%

28.4

6.2%

163.6

1.5%

51.7

2.7% (0.4)% 0.3%

56.2 50.2 27.6

1.0%

185.9

Total

35.7% 65.5% 47.1% 50.2% 49.0% 21.7% 21.7% 8.1% (2.6)% 13.6%

Adj. EBITDA

margin

21.3% 23.1% 23.3% 13.7% 20.3% 25.5% 27.4% 25.3% 13.3% 22.8%

Staffing (In billions of yen)

Revenue

YoY %

186.1 184.0 193.4 187.9 751.6 200.2 197.4 208.4 199.0 805.1

Japan

12.7% 10.9% 10.9% 5.3%

9.9%

7.6%

7.2%

7.8%

5.9%

7.1%

Europe, US, and

Australia

Revenue

YoY %

215.2 222.2 240.2 204.8 882.6 222.3 220.3 230.0 189.1 861.8

(2.4)% (5.1)% (0.4)% (0.1)% (2.1)% 3.3% (0.9)% (4.2)% (7.7)% (2.4)%

Revenue

YoY %

Adj. EBITDA

YoY %

401.4 406.3 433.6 392.8 1,634.2 422.5 417.7 438.4 388.1 1,666.9

4.1%

26.7

1.5%

25.3

4.3%

32.5

2.4%

13.2

3.1%

97.9

5.3%

28.6

2.8%

26.7

1.1% (1.2)% 2.0%

31.9 10.0 97.4

Total

(2.0)% (9.2)% 9.2% (22.9)% (4.2)% 7.1%

5.6% (1.9)% (24.0)% (0.5)%

Adj. EBITDA

margin

6.7%

6.2%

7.5%

3.4%

6.0%

6.8%

6.4% 7.3% 2.6% 5.8%

¹Before allocation of corporate overhead costs.

Historical Consolidated and Staffing Constant Currency Revenue Results

FY2023

FY2024

(In billions of yen)

Consolidated Operating Results

Reported

YoY %

Constant currency

YoY %

850.8

0.9%

825.1

(2.1)%

855.1

(2.7)%

828.3

866.7

(1.5)%

840.4

843.7

1.9%

794.2

(4.0)%

901.5

6.0%

843.3

(0.9)%

897.1

4.9%

877.2

2.6%

896.9

3.5%

881.7

1.7%

861.7

2.1%

854.6

1.3%

(5.7)%

(4.5)%

Staffing

Reported

YoY %

Constant currency

YoY %

401.4

4.1%

390.3

1.2%

406.3

1.5%

390.6

(2.4)%

433.6

4.3%

417.9

0.6%

392.8

2.4%

370.5

(3.4)%

422.5

5.3%

397.9

(0.9)%

417.7

2.8%

408.0

0.4%

438.4

1.1%

431.9

(0.4)%

388.1

(1.2)%

388.6

(1.1)%

Staffing Europe, US, and Australia

Reported

YoY %

Constant currency

YoY %

215.2

(2.4)%

204.1

222.2

(5.1)%

206.5

240.2

(0.4)%

224.5

204.8

(0.1)%

182.5

222.3

3.3%

197.7

(8.1)%

220.3

(0.9)%

210.6

230.0

(4.2)%

223.5

189.1

(7.7)%

189.5

(7.4)%

(11.8)%

(6.9)%

(11.0)%

(5.2)%

(7.0)%

(7.5)%

Historical HR Technology Constant Currency Revenue Results

FY2023

FY2024

(In millions of USD)

Europe and Others

Reported

YoY %

Constant currency

YoY %

437

428

390

401

422

(3.5)%

428

443

3.5%

441

424

8.5%

425

6.1%

439

(2.1)%

3.0%

9.0%

9.6%

Total

Reported

YoY %

Constant currency

YoY %

1,875

(14.2)%

1,879

1,778

(18.2)%

1,759

1,643

(17.2)%

1,631

1,706

(10.1)%

1,717

1,829

(2.5)%

1,855

1,890

6.3%

1,893

6.4%

1,807

10.0%

1,812

10.3%

1,854

8.7%

1,875

9.9%

(14.1)%

(19.1)%

(17.8)%

(9.5)%

(1.1)%

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's assumptions and outlook for the future and

estimates based on information available to the Company and the Company's plans and expectations as of the date of this

document or other date indicated. There can be no assurance that the relevant forecasts and other forward-looking statements will

be achieved. Please note that significant differences between the forecasts and other forward-looking statements and actual

results may arise due to various factors, including changes in economic conditions, changes in individual users’ preferences and

business clients' needs, competition, changes in the legal and regulatory environment, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates,

climate change or other changes in the natural environment, the occurrence of large-scale natural disasters, and other factors.

Accordingly, readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. The Company has no

obligation to update or revise any information contained in this document based on any subsequent developments except as

required by applicable law or stock exchange rules and regulations.

Third-Party Information

This document includes information derived from or based on third-party sources, including information about the markets in which

the Company operates. These statements are based on statistics and other information from third-party sources as cited herein,

and the Company has not independently verified and cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of any information derived from

or based on third-party sources.