NEW DELHI, India, Oct 03, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN), a world leader in the employment services industry, announced today that it has acquired three divisions of ABC Consultants, India's leading professional executive selection and recruitment firm. As a result of this transaction, Manpower India doubles its size and becomes the clear market leader for permanent placement services in the Information Technology (IT), Information Technology-enabled Services (ITeS) and Retail Financial Services (RFS) sectors in India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world. ABC's Executive Search and Selection divisions are not involved in the transaction and will continue to operate under the ABC Consultants company name.

"Manpower has been investing heavily in an aggressive plan to broaden its recruitment portfolio to encompass both permanent and temporary recruitment services for our 400,000 clients worldwide, and we now have over 2,000 recruiters dedicated to permanent placement services," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Chairman & CEO of Manpower Inc. "This expansion of our business in India further adds to our growing global share of the permanent placement market, which is good news for our clients who are increasingly looking to us for help with both temporary and permanent recruitment for their organizations."

Raghuram Reddam, Director - Human Resources for Motorola India said, "by dramatically expanding their presence in India, Manpower will become an even more valuable partner to Motorola, as we continue to rely on them to help us find and manage the best talent available in the marketplace while we grow our own business in India."

India has a very buoyant recruitment market across all industry sectors, led by the IT and ITeS sectors. However, this rapid growth has brought with it a shortage of skilled and experienced staff, particularly in the area of middle management. This will become even more evident by 2010, when it is predicted that India will have approximately 83 million workers.

Soumen Basu, Executive Chairman of Manpower India said, "Manpower India first opened its doors in 1999. Since then, we have seen the Indian economy grow at a healthy pace. But with that growth, the labor market has become more challenging for our clients, and they are coming to us for a broader range of services to help them overcome these challenges. We intend to meet the middle management skills shortage by working creatively with our clients to find alternative labor market pools; by using our proprietary training and assessment tools to develop people in the areas that are most in demand; and through our significantly larger team of specialist recruiting consultants, who best understand the local labor market."

Joerres added, "the recruitment industry is relatively young in India, and we view it as a tremendous asset to now have the most respected recruiters in the industry as part of the Manpower team. Our leaders have an average of 10 years industry experience, where our competitors' have on average only two years of experience. With this transaction, we now have nearly 400 total recruiters on our staff, with 80 percent of those dedicated to recruiting individuals for permanent placement at our client companies, and 20 percent dedicated to recruiting temporary and contract staff."

Under the terms of the deal, Manpower India has merged three business practices of ABC operations with its own operations, namely, IT, IT Enabled Services (ITeS) and Retail Financial Services (RFS). This entails transfer of ABC's senior leadership and team of consultants, ongoing client relationships and candidate databases. Soumen Basu, Executive Chairman of Manpower India, continues to lead the extended management team.

About Manpower Inc.

Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is a world leader in the employment services industry, offering customers a continuum of services to meet their needs throughout the employment and business cycle. The company specializes in permanent, temporary and contract recruitment; employee assessment; training; career transition; organizational consulting services and professional financial services. Manpower's worldwide network of 4,300 offices in 72 countries and territories enables the company to meet the needs of its 400,000 customers per year, including small and medium size enterprises in all industry sectors, as well as the world's largest multinational corporations. The focus of Manpower's work is on raising productivity through improved quality, efficiency and cost-reduction, enabling customers to concentrate on their core business activities. In addition to the Manpower brand, the company operates under the brand names of Right Management Consultants, Jefferson Wells and Elan. More information on Manpower Inc. is available at http://www.manpower.com.

About Manpower India

Manpower Services India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Manpower Inc., was established in 1999 and doubled in size in 2005 with the addition of three divisions from ABC Consultants. Manpower India is the market leader in permanent placement for the IT, ITeS and Retail Financial Services sectors. With a network of 43 offices in nine major cities, Manpower India provides the complete range of HR services and solutions to clients, including permanent recruitment; temporary and contract staffing; managed services and outsourcing; employee assessment services; and training. Manpower's unique proposition lies in the knowledge base and expertise built up over five decades of caring for candidates and creating value for clients across the globe, which it has introduced to India in the form of proprietary processes, tools, methodologies and best practices. As part of its 'candidate care and development' culture, Manpower provides free access to online training to all candidates and staff through the Global Learning Centre. Manpower India is building a strong reputation as an industry innovator and is partnering with both public and private sectors to develop new staffing policies and solutions for the Indian marketplace. Each quarter, Manpower publishes the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey that forecasts employers' hiring intentions for the next quarter. More information on Manpower India is available at http://www.manpower.co.in

About ABC Consultants

Established in 1969, ABC Consultants is the pioneer of organized recruitment services in India, and has established itself as the best- recognized recruitment brand in India. ABC operates through domain-specialist teams spread across 9 cities, and provides high quality direct hire services to meet its clients' specific requirements. Over the past three decades ABC has placed candidates with nearly 5000 organizations, including 80% of the top 500 corporates in India. Since early 1990s, it has assisted 200 new multinationals set up and staff their India operations. During 2004, the organization handled over 4,500 recruitment mandates. More information on ABC is available at http://www.abcconsultants.net

SOURCE Manpower Inc.

Tracy Shilobrit, Corporate & Global Communications of Manpower Inc.,
+1-414-906-6088, tracy.shilobrit@manpower.com

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