I am Wada, CEO of Persol Holdings. Today I would like to share with you the following four points: summary of financial results for the first half of FY 2024, FY 2024 full-year financial forecast, FY 2024 dividend and cancellation of Treasury shares, and the topics of the group. Now, summary of the consolidated financial results for the first half of FY 2024. Revenue was JPY 717.5 billion, and adjusted EBITDA was JPY 42.7 billion. Operating profit was JPY 32.1 billion. The progress of achieving adjusted EBITDA against the full-year forecast was 56.3%. Next is the full-year forecast. Revenue is expected to be JPY 1 .455 trillion. Adjusted EBITDA will be JPY 76.0 billion, and operating profit will be JPY 56.0 billion. Third, FY 2024 dividend and cancellation of Treasury shares. We will pay an interim dividend of JPY 4.5 per share, as planned at the beginning of the fiscal year.
We will also cancel 53,560,800 shares of Treasury shares, two-thirds of the shares acquired through share buyback by September of this year. The fourth, topics for the group are as follows. On September 30, 2024, we published the Integrated Report 2024. In addition, the estimation of the labor market in 2035 was published by Persol Research and Consulting. Also, our ESG rating was upgraded to AAA by MSCI, which will be explained later. Now, our CFO, Tokunaga, will explain on the overview of the FY 2024 first half financial results.
I am Tokunaga, CFO. I will now give you an overview of the first half financial results and current status of each SBU. As was mentioned earlier, revenue increased 9.6% year over year to JPY 717.5 billion, and operating profit increased 21% to JPY 32.1 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA, which is the most important factor for our management team , was up 22% to JPY 42.7 billion. Profit attributable to owners of parent increased by 27% to JPY 21.3 billion due to a tax refund of approximately JPY 1.3 billion from Programmed in Australia. Adjusted EPS, which is the basis for dividend, was JPY 10.99. Next, analysis of increase and decrease in the adjusted EBITDA compared to the first half of last year. Gross profit increased 11.5% or JPY 17.1 billion. On the other hand, we have invested in the personnel expenses since last year, so SG&A expense increased by JPY 9.4 billion. Impact from foreign exchange rate was JPY 2.1 billion on gross profit and JPY 1.8 billion on SG&A expenses, respectively. Next, I would like to show you the changes from adjusted EBITDA to operating profit on an IFRS basis.
Depreciation cost, additional liability of accrued paid leave, and share-based payment expenses each increased by several hundred million yen. As a result, adjusted EBITDA of JPY 42.7 billion was reduced to JPY 32.1 billion of operating profit on an IFRS basis. Next, I would like to show you the revenue by each SBU. We were able to achieve revenue growth in all segments. In particular, the Career SBU, which is the main pillar of our growth, achieved a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue compared to the initial forecast of 12%. The following is the adjusted EBITDA by SBU. BPO has seen a decrease in profit due to the loss of COVID-19-related projects, but other SBUs have achieved an increase in profit as shown here. I will explain the situation of each SBU later. The operating profit by SBU will be omitted since the trend is similar to that of adjusted EBITDA.
Next, I would like to present the first half results of revenue by SBU and its progress rate. The progress rate toward the full-year forecast is relative to the revised figures. As for the progress rate of adjusted EBITDA by SBU, Staffing SBU and Career SBU have made a progress of about 56%, respectively, while BPO SBU and Technology SBU achieved about 40% to the target. Due to the nature of each business, profit will increase in the second half. Therefore, we expect to achieve the full-year forecast numbers. I will omit the explanation on the operating profit of emerging and the progress rates by each SBU. Next, I would like to present the status of each SBU for the first half of FY 2024. First of all, Staffing SBU, which is the main pillar of our earnings, revenue increased by 4.7%.
As for revenue KPIs, the number of active staff increased 3%, same as in the first quarter, and the average charge price also increased 1.9%, also almost the same as in the first quarter. As written in the comments on performance in the middle of the page, the Staffing SBU's placement business continued to be strong as in the first quarter, resulting in a 14% increase in adjusted EBITDA year over year. The next is the topic of Staffing SBU. In collaboration with Microsoft Japan, we are striving to develop digital human resources. Due to time constraints, I will omit the details. Next is the BPO SBU. As I explained at the beginning of this presentation, adjusted EBITDA was down 30% due to a decrease of COVID-19-related business. However, other than that, our organic business was solid.
As for the topic of BPO SBU, we launched an online BPO service called StepBase for SMEs in September, though I will omit the detailed explanation here. The third SBU is the Technology SBU. Revenue grew by more than 10% over the same period of the last year and are growing steadily. The first subsegment, IT and DX Solutions, has approximately 3,300 engineers, an increase of approximately 20% over the same period last year. The average sales per unit also increased by about 3%. The number of engineers for mechanical and electrical engineering increased by approximately 10%. The average sales per unit was also favorable, up 8% from the same period of the previous year. In the third subsegment, Registered Temporary Staffing, the number of engineers itself declined 4% relative to the same period of last year, but the billing rate increased 4%.
Here is the operating rate and average sales per unit of engineers, excluding Registered Temporary Staffing. The number of employees increased significantly from 6,000 in the same period a year ago to 6,900, due in part to the hiring of more than 600 new graduates in the first quarter. The operating rate was 89.4%, which is in line with the plan we set at the beginning of the period. Due to time constraints, I will skip over the topics of the Technology SBU. Next is the Career SBU. As I explained at the beginning of this presentation, revenue increased by 15% year-on-year in the first half compared to the beginning of the year forecast of 12%. The number of consultants was 2,451 compared to 2,400 in the first quarter, and the number of consultants is almost stable in light of the market uncertainty in the second half.
Productivity is also showing a slight improvement over the same period of the previous year. As for the Career SBU, we established the AI Strategy Division on October the 1st. Through this new function, we aim to improve the accuracy and efficiency of matching between candidates and jobs by using generative AI. The last SBU is the Asia-Pacific SBU. Revenue has grown by 16.8%, with a 9% impact from foreign exchange and about 8% growth in local currencies. In China and Vietnam, the market for placement business continued to be soft and sluggish, but in other countries, revenue was almost in line with the plan. In facility management, following the momentum in the first quarter, the second quarter also performed steadily. Next, the topic of Asia-Pacific SBU. As I explained earlier, the facility management business is performing well. The overall work in hand was a record high AUD 3.8 billion.
Lastly, others and adjustments. As for the others, we are strengthening investments to Sharefull in Q2, continuing from Q1, so the deficit will be a little larger to JPY 1.9 billion this year, as opposed to a deficit of JPY 0.7 billion in the previous fiscal year. Adjustment amount was in line with the forecast made at the beginning of the year. Regarding Sharefull topics, the number of downloads for the application surpassed eight million. In addition, in order to deepen the linkage with Sync Up, a SaaS-type shift schedule management system linked to Sharefull, we renamed it to Sharefull Shift and are enhancing its functions for customers. Lastly, Persol Research and Consulting published the estimation of the future labor market 2035. Mr. Wada will give you an explanation later. Now, I will continue with the presentation of the full-year earnings forecast.
First of all, the outlook for the placement market, which is expected to undergo the biggest change. Our current feeling is that the market environment will continue at the same level in the second half, following the trend in the first half, and that the wait-and-see attitude of job seekers will continue. In addition, though the appetite of client companies to recruit remains high, our view is that their recruitment activities will continue in the form of selective hiring. In light of this, it is imperative to focus on securing the number of job seekers in the second half, as we understand the competition to attract job seekers will intensify. In this context, we, especially in the Career SBU, will further strengthen our marketing efforts to job seekers, and we will actively invest in this area.
In addition, we will control the number of consultants appropriately in order to increase their productivity. Based on the above, we believe that revenue growth in the second half will be within the range of our forecast set at the beginning of the fiscal year. Next, I will provide an analysis of the increase-decrease in the adjusted EBITDA for the first half and the second half. As you can see here, gross profit will increase by JPY 4.8 billion from the first half. On the other hand, personnel expenses will increase by JPY 2.5 billion, and SG&A for non-personnel expenses will increase by JPY 11.9 billion to make second half adjusted EBITDA as JPY 33.2 billion. The full-year financial forecast is shown in the next page. Revenue will be JPY 1,455.0 billion for the full year. Operating profit JPY 56.0 billion. Adjusted EBITDA will be JPY 76.0 billion.
Profit attributable to owners of parent will be JPY 36.5 billion, and adjusted net profit is expected to be JPY 42.2 billion. EPS is JPY 16.30. Adjusted EPS is projected to be JPY 18.75. We believe that we can mostly control the situation within the range of the assumptions made at the beginning of the year. This page shows the revenue forecast by each SBU. Please check as it shows adjusted EBITDA and operating profit for each SBU from the next page. In general, staffing, BPO, and Technology SBUs will achieve the number in line with the plan, and Career SBU will also achieve the target indicated in the range. Next, I would like to talk about dividends and cancellation of treasury shares. The interim dividend will be JPY 4.5 per share as planned at the beginning of the year.
We will also cancel 2.3% of the total issued shares, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the treasury shares that we completed share buyback by September. The remaining shares will be used for employees' share compensation. Therefore, 53,560, 800 shares will be canceled. Lastly, I would like to talk about the group's topics. At the end of September, we issued the Persol Group Integrated Report, and it is great if you could take a look at this report. It describes our goals, the progress of our Mid-term Management Plan 2026, and our efforts to address the eight materialities. We have also included an overview of our financial strategy and a talk interview by three of our outside directors, so we hope that you will read this report to gain a better understanding of Persol Group.
In addition, Persol Research and Consulting has released the estimation of the future labor market in 2035. This is not simply an analysis of how many workers will be needed, but an analysis of how long it will take to complete a specific job, how many people and how many hours are needed for the job, and therefore how many workers will be short under the certain level of economic growth and labor transition in the future. It says we will be short of 17.75 million hours. For full-time workers, this means a shortage of 3.84 million workers in 2035. This is about twice as much human resource shortage as in 2023, and we believe that the level of shortage will be even more severe. In other words, the market will expect the companies like us to be more active in the future.
Lastly, MSCI has upgraded our ESG rating from AA to AAA. We are pleased that our governance, human capital management, privacy, and data security initiatives have been so highly evaluated, and we will continue to work hard to maintain this status without being complacent. We will continue to strive to improve our corporate value, and I look forward to your continued support. This is all from me. Thank you.