Kforce Inc (KFRC) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Kforce Second Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Briana, and I will be your conference operator today. Please note that this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I will now turn the call over to Joe Liberatore, Kforce's President and CEO. You may begin your conference.

下午好，歡迎參加 Kforce 第二季度收益電話會議。我叫 Briana，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。請注意，此通話正在錄音。 （操作員指示）我現在將電話轉給 Kforce 總裁兼首席執行官 Joe Liberatore。您可以開始您的會議了。

Good afternoon. This call contains certain statements that are forward looking. These statements are based upon current assumptions and expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from the factors listed in Kforce's public filings and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We cannot undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. You can find additional information about our results in our earnings release and our SEC filings.

下午好。本次電話會議包含某些前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於當前的假設和預期，存在風險和不確定性。實際結果可能與 Kforce 的公開文件以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他報告和文件中列出的因素存在重大差異。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的責任。您可以在我們的收益發布和 SEC 文件中找到有關我們業績的更多信息。

In addition, we have published our prepared remarks within our Investor Relations portion of our website. Our results for the second quarter reflect a continuation of an uncertain economic environment, and we believe the actions being broadly taken across industries by our market-leading clients to ensure they are prepared for the possibility of a slowdown. This view is informed by our internal metrics, discussions with clients and other industry and economic data points. There have been widespread concerns and, frankly, expectations that the U.S. economy would fall into a recession of uncertain severity since the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising rates in March of 2022 to address the persistently high inflation.

此外，我們還在網站的投資者關係部分發布了準備好的評論。我們第二季度的業績反映了不確定的經濟環境的持續，我們相信我們的市場領先客戶正在跨行業廣泛採取行動，以確保他們為經濟放緩的可能性做好準備。這一觀點是根據我們的內部指標、與客戶的討論以及其他行業和經濟數據點得出的。自美聯儲於 2022 年 3 月開始大幅加息以應對持續高企的通脹以來，人們普遍擔心，甚至預計美國經濟將陷入嚴重程度不確定的衰退。

The yield curve continues to be significantly inverted, which has been a very strong indicator of a likely recession going back more than 50 years. We also experienced the collapse of several large financial institutions over this time. Though the pace of hiring has slowed and we have seen an increasing level of layoffs, the labor markets have continued to be remarkably resilient with continued historically low levels of unemployment.

收益率曲線繼續大幅倒掛，這是 50 多年前可能出現衰退的強有力指標。這段時間我們也經歷了幾家大型金融機構的倒閉。儘管招聘速度有所放緩，而且裁員人數不斷增加，但勞動力市場仍然保持著顯著的彈性，失業率仍處於歷史低位。

More recently, there have been some indicators suggesting significant moderation in inflation, the increasing discussions of a possible soft landing to the U.S. economy. While we are not economists, my point in sharing these data points is to articulate the significant uncertainties that exist in the macro environment. We believe this is causing companies, broadly speaking, to exercise restraint and the number of new technology investments they initiate and to selectively trim existing projects that don't create an immediate return.

最近，一些指標表明通脹顯著放緩，人們越來越多地討論美國經濟可能軟著陸。雖然我們不是經濟學家，但我分享這些數據點的目的是闡明宏觀環境中存在的重大不確定性。我們認為，從廣義上講，這導致公司對他們發起的新技術投資實行克制，並有選擇地削減不會立即產生回報的現有項目。

The restraint being exercised by companies, generally speaking, including our clients continued in the second quarter, and though we are still seeing new project awards, we have not seen any broad change in client mindset. This is reflected in our second quarter results and expectations of performance in the third quarter.

一般來說，包括我們的客戶在內的公司在第二季度繼續實行限制，儘管我們仍然看到新的項目獲獎，但我們沒有看到客戶心態發生任何廣泛的變化。這反映在我們第二季度的業績和第三季度的業績預期中。

While the firm continues to operate efficiently due to our focused technology-centric platform and produce results in the technology business that are top of class, it became clear to us that we needed to adjust our structural costs to align them with lower levels of revenues that we have experienced without compromising investment in key strategic initiatives. While actions that affect our Kforce team are tremendously difficult to make and never taken lightly, the impact of these macroeconomic uncertainties on our business drove us to take these actions. Dave Kelly, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer, will provide insights into the cost and benefits associated with these actions in his remarks.

雖然公司由於我們專注於以技術為中心的平台而繼續高效運營，並在技術業務中取得了一流的成果，但我們清楚地認識到，我們需要調整結構成本，使其與較低的收入水平保持一致。我們在不影響關鍵戰略舉措投資的情況下經歷過。雖然影響我們 Kforce 團隊的行動非常困難，而且絕不能掉以輕心，但這些宏觀經濟不確定性對我們業務的影響促使我們採取這些行動。 Kforce 首席財務官戴夫·凱利 (Dave Kelly) 將在講話中深入了解與這些行動相關的成本和收益。

As our performance in the second quarter, overall revenues were slightly below the low end of guidance. Despite lower-than-expected revenues, earnings per share was within the range of guidance. As we look further into the future, we remain steadfast in our belief in 2 areas: First, we believe that the long-term secular drivers in demand in the technology are very much intact and will persist in the future irrespective of how the short-term economic environment plays out.

由於我們第二季度的表現，整體收入略低於指導的低端。儘管收入低於預期，但每股收益仍在指導範圍內。當我們進一步展望未來時，我們仍然堅定地相信兩個領域：首先，我們相信技術需求的長期驅動因素完好無損，並且無論短期情況如何，都將在未來持續存在。長期經濟環境顯現。

The strength of the secular drivers of demand and technology accelerated significantly coming out of both the Great Recession and the 2020 pandemic, and it remains clear to us that broad and strategic use of technology, including the recent headlines that GenAI technologies have garnered will continue.

經歷了大衰退和 2020 年大流行病後，需求和技術的長期驅動力顯著加速，我們仍然清楚，技術的廣泛和戰略性使用，包括 GenAI 技術最近佔據的頭條新聞，將繼續下去。

While clients are acting with heightened caution today, we believe this is resulting in tremendous backlog of desirable investments that will be prioritized once the macro uncertainties begin to clear. Technology investments are simply not optional in today's competitive and disruptive business climate. Our core competency is rooted in our ability to identify and provide critical resources real time at scale to solve business problems for our clients in virtually every industry.

儘管客戶今天採取了高度謹慎的態度，但我們相信這會導致理想投資的大量積壓，一旦宏觀不確定性開始消除，這些投資將被優先考慮。在當今競爭激烈、顛覆性的商業環境中，技術投資根本不是可有可無的。我們的核心競爭力植根於我們能夠大規模地實時識別和提供關鍵資源，從而為幾乎每個行業的客戶解決業務問題。

Our integrated strategy also allows us to be flexible in partnering with our clients to meet their needs as part of a traditional staffing assignment, a managed team or managed project engagement. There is simply no other market we want to be focused on other than domestic technology talent solution space.

我們的綜合戰略還使我們能夠靈活地與客戶合作，作為傳統人員配置、託管團隊或託管項目參與的一部分來滿足他們的需求。除了國內技術人才解決方案空間之外，我們根本沒有其他市場想要關注。

Second, we expect the sharpening in our focus to continue to contribute to our market outperformance. We have built a solid foundation at Kforce and are partnering with world-class companies to solve complex problems and help them competitively transform their businesses. Our balance sheet is clean, and we expect this and our strong cash flows to continue providing us great flexibility to return significant capital to our shareholders.

其次，我們預計我們重點關注的加強將繼續為我們的市場表現做出貢獻。我們在 Kforce 建立了堅實的基礎，並與世界一流的公司合作，解決複雜的問題並幫助他們進行具有競爭力的業務轉型。我們的資產負債表是乾淨的，我們預計這一點和我們強勁的現金流將繼續為我們提供極大的靈活性，向股東返還大量資本。

We have a solid, highly tenured team in place with the expectation of continuing to capture additional market share. Our executive leadership team has been through multiple economic cycles and has the experience to skillfully navigate through whatever may lie ahead.

我們擁有一支實力雄厚、長期任職的團隊，希望能夠繼續佔領更多的市場份額。我們的執行領導團隊經歷了多個經濟周期，擁有熟練應對未來可能發生的一切的經驗。

A reflection of preparedness is the success of our executive transition plan initiated in December 2021. At that time, our founder, Dave Dunkel, announced his retirement as CEO and entered into a multiyear agreement to provide the firm support in a nonexecutive employee role in addition to continuing his role as a Board Chairman. The Board of Directors has determined that due to the success of the transition and the confidence it has in the executive management team, it is now comfortable accelerating this transition to a role solely as a Board Chairman effective immediately and that those transition services are no longer necessary.

我們於2021 年12 月啟動的高管過渡計劃的成功反映了我們的準備工作。當時，我們的創始人戴夫·鄧克爾(Dave Dunkel) 宣布辭去首席執行官職務，並簽訂了一份多年期協議，為非執行員工角色提供堅定支持。繼續擔任董事會主席。董事會已決定，由於過渡的成功以及對執行管理團隊的信心，現在可以放心地加快這一過渡，立即生效，僅擔任董事會主席，並且這些過渡服務不再是必要的。

I want to personally thank Dave for sharing his wisdom and guidance during this transition, and I look forward to continuing to engage with Dave and the rest of the Board of Directors. Our highly experienced management team is navigating through the current macro climate well, and we remain very excited about our future prospects. Kye Mitchell, Kforce's Chief Operations Officer, will now give greater insights into our performance and recent operating trends, and Dave Kelly will then provide additional details on our financial results as well as our future financial expectations. Kye?

我個人要感謝戴夫在過渡期間分享他的智慧和指導，我期待繼續與戴夫和董事會其他成員合作。我們經驗豐富的管理團隊很好地應對了當前的宏觀環境，我們對未來的前景仍然感到非常興奮。 Kforce 首席運營官 Kye Mitchell 現在將對我們的業績和近期運營趨勢提供更深入的見解，然後 Dave Kelly 將提供有關我們財務業績以及未來財務預期的更多詳細信息。凱？

Thank you, Joe. Overall revenues in Q2 declined 10.8% year-over-year with revenues in our technology staffing and solutions business declining 8.5%, off very difficult prior year comps, where our technology business grew approximately 24%. As Joe mentioned, our clients exercise more caution in starting new technology investments than we anticipated. Additionally, they continue to selectively trim resources on existing projects. With that said, we have not experienced clients terminating existing large projects. While the caution being exercised was seen across our client portfolio in 2023, it has been more prevalent in our largest clients.

謝謝你，喬。第二季度的總體收入同比下降 10.8%，其中技術人員配置和解決方案業務的收入下降 8.5%，而上年同期的業績非常困難，我們的技術業務增長了約 24%。正如喬提到的，我們的客戶在開始新技術投資時比我們預期更加謹慎。此外，他們繼續有選擇地削減現有項目的資源。儘管如此，我們還沒有遇到客戶終止現有大型項目的情況。雖然 2023 年我們的客戶組合中都採取了謹慎態度，但這種謹慎態度在我們最大的客戶中更為普遍。

As you look at overall trends within the quarter, we saw some relative stability in April after a weaker-than-usual Q1, which was followed by continued slight softening in May and June. During the last 2 months of the quarter, the number of technology resources placed on new engagements declined from April levels and assignment ends continue to slightly outpace new consultants on assignments. To that point, we experienced relatively modest declines in the total number of consultants on assignment throughout the second quarter, and our guidance reflects the continuation of that trend as we have not yet seen an inflection point.

從本季度的總體趨勢來看，我們看到在第一季度弱於平常之後，四月份的情況相對穩定，隨後五月和六月持續小幅走軟。在本季度的最後 2 個月中，用於新業務的技術資源數量較 4 月份的水平有所下降，並且任務結束數量繼續略高於新顧問的任務數量。就這一點而言，我們在整個第二季度外派的顧問總數出現了相對溫和的下降，我們的指導反映了這一趨勢的持續，因為我們尚未看到拐點。

Overall average bill rates in our technology business remain near record levels at approximately $90 per hour, which improved 1.3% sequentially and 3.5% year-over-year. The increase is primarily driven by the increasing mix of higher skilled workers on assignment. In the near term, we expect that average bill rates will remain stable or show slight improvement. This is primarily due to a highly skilled technology talent mix and an increase in the proportion of managed teams and project engagements within our overall technology business.

我們技術業務的總體平均賬單費率仍接近創紀錄水平，約為每小時 90 美元，環比提高 1.3%，同比提高 3.5%。這一增長主要是由於外派高技能工人數量的增加所致。短期內，我們預計平均話費率將保持穩定或略有改善。這主要是由於高技能的技術人才組合以及我們整個技術業務中管理團隊和項目參與比例的增加。

Looking ahead, we believe average bill rates will continue to work in our favor in the long term. This is especially true as our mix of higher value service offerings continues to rise. Our clients remain focused on critical technology initiatives in the areas of cloud, digital, UI/UX, data analytics, project and program management, and modernization efforts. Our clients tell us they are committed to starting new mission-critical projects for their organizations, leading to wins across multiple industries, though the pace of initiation is slower.

展望未來，我們相信，從長遠來看，平均賬單利率將繼續對我們有利。隨著我們提供的高價值服務組合不斷增加，這一點尤其如此。我們的客戶仍然專注於雲、數字、UI/UX、數據分析、項目和計劃管理以及現代化工作領域的關鍵技術舉措。我們的客戶告訴我們，他們致力於為其組織啟動新的關鍵任務項目，從而在多個行業取得勝利，儘管啟動速度較慢。

Although clients are currently exercising more caution in their project investments, based on our historical experience, we expect companies to swiftly shift their priorities and increase their technology investments once the macroeconomic landscape becomes clearer. Our clients expect us to broaden our service offerings beyond traditional staffing to include managed teams and project solutions. Clients consider access to the right talent essential to their success and see our services as a cost-effective solution for their project requirements.

儘管客戶目前在項目投資方面更加謹慎，但根據我們的歷史經驗，我們預計，一旦宏觀經濟形勢變得更加明朗，企業將迅速改變其優先事項並增加技術投資。我們的客戶期望我們擴大我們的服務範圍，超越傳統的人員配備，包括管理團隊和項目解決方案。客戶認為獲得合適的人才對其成功至關重要，並將我們的服務視為滿足其項目需求的經濟高效的解決方案。

Our integrated strategy capitalizes on the strong relationships we have with world-class companies. We are utilizing our existing sales, recruiters and consultants to provide higher value teams and project solutions that effectively address our clients' challenges. Our client portfolio is diverse and includes large market-leading customers, which we believe will drive sustainable above-market performance in the long term. While short-term disruption may occur with certain clients or industries, our diverse client base of world-class companies will ultimately benefit our shareholders.

我們的綜合戰略充分利用了我們與世界一流公司的牢固關係。我們正在利用現有的銷售、招聘人員和顧問來提供更高價值的團隊和項目解決方案，以有效解決客戶的挑戰。我們的客戶組合多元化，包括市場領先的大型客戶，我們相信這些客戶將長期推動可持續的高於市場的業績。雖然某些客戶或行業可能會出現短期混亂，但我們世界級公司的多元化客戶群最終將使我們的股東受益。

We saw sequential declines in most of our large industry verticals with the exception of our energy and utilities industry. On a relative basis, we experienced stabilizing sequential trends in the technology, hardware and software industry. This sector had previously garnered attention due to the headlines about workforce reductions.

除能源和公用事業行業外，我們看到大多數大型垂直行業都出現連續下滑。相對而言，我們經歷了技術、硬件和軟件行業的穩定連續趨勢。該行業此前曾因裁員的頭條新聞而受到關注。

Our guidance contemplates third quarter revenues in our Technology business to decline sequentially in the mid-single digits and decline in the low teens on a year-over-year basis. Our FA business declined approximately 10% sequentially and 28% year-over-year. The year-over-year declines reflect the impact of business we no longer are supporting due to the repositioning efforts as well as a more challenging macroeconomic environment. We expect revenues to be down sequentially in the low double digits and approximately 30% on a year-over-year basis in the third quarter. We continue to support our FA business and improve its alignment with our Technology business. Evidence of this project -- progress is that our average bill rate in the second quarter of 2023 is $51 compared to $38 in the first quarter of 2020 and more recently up 7.7% over the second quarter of 2022. Not surprisingly, our higher skill set business is where we see relatively better performance.

我們的指引預計，我們的技術業務第三季度收入將連續下降個位數中段，同比下降兩位數。我們的 FA 業務環比下降約 10%，同比下降 28%。同比下降反映了由於重新定位工作以及更具挑戰性的宏觀經濟環境而我們不再支持的業務的影響。我們預計第三季度收入將連續下降兩位數，同比下降約 30%。我們將繼續支持我們的 FA 業務並改善其與我們技術業務的一致性。該項目的證據——進展是，我們2023 年第二季度的平均賬單費率為51 美元，而2020 年第一季度為38 美元，最近比2022 年第二季度增長了7.7%。毫不奇怪，我們的技能水平更高業務是我們看到相對較好表現的領域。

We have taken necessary and thoughtful measures to strike a balance between associate productivity and revenue expectations. Our primary focus is on retaining our most productive associates ensuring that we are well prepared to capitalize on market demand when it accelerates. At the same time, we are also making targeted investments to improve our managed teams and project solutions capabilities.

我們採取了必要且深思熟慮的措施，以在員工生產力和收入預期之間取得平衡。我們的首要重點是留住最俱生產力的員工，確保我們做好充分準備，在市場需求加速時充分利用。同時，我們也在進行有針對性的投資，以提高我們的管理團隊和項目解決方案能力。

I am truly grateful for the unwavering trust that our clients, candidates and consultants place in us. It fills me with the immense appreciation to witness the dedication, creativity and resilience displayed by our incredible team. Without a doubt, it is their dedication and commitment that drives our success, and I am truly grateful.

我衷心感謝客戶、候選人和顧問對我們的堅定信任。目睹我們令人難以置信的團隊所表現出的奉獻精神、創造力和韌性，我感到非常感激。毫無疑問，正是他們的奉獻和承諾推動了我們的成功，我真的很感激。

I will now turn the call over to Dave Kelly, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer. Dave?

我現在將把電話轉給 Kforce 首席財務官戴夫·凱利 (Dave Kelly)。戴夫？

Thank you, Kye. Second quarter revenues of $389.2 million declined 10.8% year-over-year and earnings per share were $0.95. Overall gross margins increased 20 basis points sequentially and declined 170 basis points year-over-year to 28.3% in the second quarter due to a combination of a lower mix of direct hire revenue and a decline in Flex margins. Flex margins of 25.9% in our Technology business were flat sequentially on modest bill rate increases as clients understand that qualified, highly skilled candidates remain in short supply.

謝謝你，凱。第二季度收入為 3.892 億美元，同比下降 10.8%，每股收益為 0.95 美元。由於直聘收入減少和 Flex 利潤率下降，第二季度整體毛利率環比增長 20 個基點，同比下降 170 個基點至 28.3%。由於客戶了解到合格、高技能的候選人仍然供不應求，我們技術業務的彈性利潤率為 25.9%，與上一季度持平，原因是賬單費率小幅上漲。

Technology Flex margins declined 100 basis points year-over-year due to higher health care costs and modest declines in bill pay spreads due to heightened price sensitivities and changes in business mix. The decline in Technology Flex margins on a year-over-year basis that we experienced over the last several quarters is fairly typical of what we have seen in prior slowdowns, and we typically see margins recover as the macroeconomic environment stabilizes.

由於醫療保健成本上升以及價格敏感性提高和業務組合變化導致賬單支付利差小幅下降，Technology Flex 利潤率同比下降 100 個基點。過去幾個季度我們所經歷的技術彈性利潤率同比下降是我們在之前的經濟放緩中所看到的相當典型的情況，而且隨著宏觀經濟環境的穩定，我們通常會看到利潤率恢復。

As additional reference, margins in our Technology business in 2022 were consistent with 2021 and 2020 levels. Technology talent has been scarce for more than a decade, and we expect to see continued wage increases over the longer term and relative margin stability.

作為額外參考，我們的技術業務 2022 年的利潤率與 2021 年和 2020 年的水平一致。十多年來，技術人才一直稀缺，我們預計長期內工資將持續上漲，利潤率相對穩定。

Flex margins in our FA business increased 150 basis points sequentially and have improved nearly 400 basis points over the last 3 years as our mix of business has improved due to repositioning efforts. Much like our technology business, we anticipate Flex margins to remain fairly stable at these levels now that the significant majority of business that we are no longer pursuing has run off. As we look forward to Q3, we expect spreads in our Technology business to decline slightly due primarily to higher utilization of paid time off during the summer months, reasonably consistent with what we experienced in the third quarter of 2022.

我們的 FA 業務的彈性利潤率連續增長了 150 個基點，並且在過去 3 年裡提高了近 400 個基點，因為我們的業務組合因重新定位而得到改善。就像我們的技術業務一樣，我們預計 Flex 的利潤率將在這些水平上保持相當穩定，因為我們不再追求的絕大多數業務都已經流失。展望第三季度，我們預計技術業務的利差將略有下降，這主要是由於夏季帶薪休假的利用率較高，這與我們在 2022 年第三季度的經歷相當一致。

As we look beyond Q3, as clients increasingly engage us for projects critical to their ongoing success, including managed teams and project solutions engagements that are typically higher margin opportunities, we expect this to support overall margin stability.

當我們展望第三季度之後，隨著客戶越來越多地與我們合作對其持續成功至關重要的項目，包括通常具有更高利潤機會的管理團隊和項目解決方案合作，我們預計這將支持整體利潤率的穩定。

Overall SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased 70 basis points year-over-year. Given our exceptional growth in 2021 and 2022, our compensation plan structure rewarded our top-performing associates with very significant bonuses and commissions. With growth coming off those historically very high levels, we are generating leverage in our SG&A costs through lower overall performance-based compensation costs. We've also been successful at driving greater cost efficiencies from our real estate portfolio given our Office-Occasional model, which has allowed us to reduce overall square footage by more than 40%. As we continue to transition our remaining office leases over the next 2 to 3 years, we expect to generate additional savings from further reductions in overall square footage. In this environment, we are also tightly managing other areas of discretionary spend.

整體 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比同比下降 70 個基點。鑑於我們在 2021 年和 2022 年取得了非凡的增長，我們的薪酬計劃結構為表現最佳的員工提供了非常可觀的獎金和佣金。隨著增長脫離了歷史上非常高的水平，我們正在通過降低基於績效的整體薪酬成本來產生SG＆A成本的槓桿作用。憑藉我們的偶爾辦公模式，我們還成功地提高了房地產投資組合的成本效率，這使我們能夠將整體面積減少 40% 以上。隨著我們在未來 2 至 3 年內繼續過渡剩餘的辦公室租賃，我們預計將通過進一步減少總面積來節省更多費用。在這種環境下，我們還嚴格管理其他領域的可自由支配支出。

Our second quarter operating margin was 6.7%, which was at the middle of the range of our expectations. Our overall effective tax rate in the second quarter was 27.5%. Operating cash flows were $21 million, and our return on invested capital was approximately 40% in the second quarter. We have a balance sheet with very little debt and expect to be generating more than $100 million in operating cash flows in 2023. We've had a long history of returning capital to our shareholders. Since we initiated our dividend in 2014, we've increased it 360%. In addition, since 2007, we've reduced our weighted average shares outstanding from 42.3 million to 19.3 million or more than 50% at an average price of approximately $21 per share. All in, we've returned nearly $900 million in capital to our shareholders since 2007, which has represented approximately 75% of the cash generated while significantly growing our business and improving profitability levels.

我們第二季度的營業利潤率為 6.7%，處於我們預期範圍的中間位置。第二季度我們的整體有效稅率為27.5%。第二季度運營現金流為 2100 萬美元，投資資本回報率約為 40%。我們的資產負債表上債務很少，預計到 2023 年將產生超過 1 億美元的運營現金流。我們在向股東返還資本方面有著悠久的歷史。自 2014 年開始派息以來，我們已將股息增加了 360%。此外，自 2007 年以來，我們已將加權平均已發行股票從 4,230 萬股減少至 1,930 萬股，即減少了 50% 以上，平均價格約為每股 21 美元。總而言之，自 2007 年以來，我們已向股東返還了近 9 億美元的資本，約占我們業務顯著增長和盈利水平提高的同時產生的現金的 75%。

In the second quarter, we returned nearly 100% of operating cash flows to our shareholders through repurchases and dividends. This is a continuation of the levels we've seen over the past 2 years. Our plans going forward remain unchanged.

第二季度，我們通過回購和分紅將近100%的經營現金流返還給股東。這是我們過去兩年所看到的水平的延續。我們未來的計劃保持不變。

We remain committed to returning capital regardless of the economic climate. Our balance sheet and the flexibility we have under our credit facility provides us the opportunity to get more aggressive in repurchasing our stock if there's a dislocation between expected future financial performance and the valuation of our shares.

無論經濟形勢如何，我們仍然致力於返還資本。如果預期的未來財務業績與我們的股票估值之間存在脫節，我們的資產負債表和信貸安排下的靈活性使我們有機會更積極地回購股票。

The third quarter has 63 billing days, which is 1 fewer than the second quarter of 2023 and 1 fewer than the third quarter of 2022. We expect Q3 revenues to be in the range of $359 million to $367 million and earnings per share to be between $0.60 and $0.68.

第三季度有63 個計費天，比2023 年第二季度減少1 天，比2022 年第三季度減少1 天。我們預計第三季度收入將在3.59 億美元至3.67 億美元之間，每股收益將在0.60 美元和 0.68 美元。

As Joe referenced in his opening remarks, we implemented some very difficult changes this month that immediately reduced our costs to better align overall support of the firm with current and expected near-term revenue levels. These reductions do not impact our commitment to investments contemplated in critical initiatives.

正如喬在開場白中提到的那樣，我們本月實施了一些非常困難的變革，這些變革立即降低了我們的成本，以便更好地使公司的整體支持與當前和預期的近期收入水平保持一致。這些減少不會影響我們對關鍵舉措中預期投資的承諾。

Our overall operating performance at these revenue levels remains well above what it had been previously, which is reflective of the return we are seeing from previous strategic investments. Contemplated in our third quarter guidance is a charge of approximately $5.5 million or $0.22 a share related to these actions. Excluding this charge, the range of earnings per share would be $0.82 to $0.90. We anticipate that these actions will reduce annual operating costs from current run rates by approximately $14 million or $3.5 million per quarter. We will partially benefit from the savings in Q3 due to the timing of the actions.

在這些收入水平上，我們的整體運營業績仍然遠高於之前的水平，這反映了我們從之前的戰略投資中看到的回報。我們第三季度指導中預計與這些行動相關的費用約為 550 萬美元或每股 0.22 美元。不計此費用，每股收益範圍為 0.82 美元至 0.90 美元。我們預計這些行動將使年度運營成本在當前運行率的基礎上減少約 1400 萬美元或每季度 350 萬美元。由於採取行動的時間安排，我們將部分受益於第三季度的節省。

Our guidance does not consider the potential impact of any other unusual or nonrecurring items that may occur. Looking beyond the expected short-term macroeconomic uncertainties, we remain extremely excited about our strategic position and prospects for continuing to deliver above market growth while continuing to make the necessary investments in our integrated strategy and back office transformation efforts that will help drive long-term growth and put us in a position to attain double-digit operating margins as we grow.

我們的指南不考慮可能發生的任何其他異常或非經常性事項的潛在影響。除了預期的短期宏觀經濟不確定性之外，我們仍然對我們的戰略地位和前景感到非常興奮，因為我們將繼續實現高於市場的增長，同時繼續對我們的綜合戰略和後台轉型工作進行必要的投資，這將有助於推動長期發展增長並使我們能夠在增長時實現兩位數的營業利潤率。

On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to our teams for all of their efforts.

我謹代表我們整個管理團隊，向我們團隊的所有努力表示誠摯的感謝。

Operator, we'd now like to turn the call over for questions.

接線員，我們現在想轉接電話詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自貝爾德 (Baird) 的馬克·馬爾孔 (Mark Marcon)。

Joe and Kye, I was wondering if you could talk just a little bit more about what you're hearing from some of your larger Tech Flex clients just in terms of how they're thinking about the remainder of the year and when they think that they might get a little bit more clarity with regards to their outlook?

喬和凱，我想知道你們是否可以多談談你們從一些較大的 Tech Flex 客戶那裡聽到的情況，包括他們對今年剩餘時間的看法以及他們何時認為他們可能會對自己的前景有更清晰的認識？

Yes. Mark, it's Joe. I would say this is -- I mean, you've heard this countless times already. I mean given how well forecasted the times that we're in have been, we believe that our clients have been reacting in preparation for what I'll say is more of a shallow-type recession. And those activities started probably about a year ago, and they've continued to respond in that nature.

是的。馬克，是喬。我想說的是——我的意思是，你已經聽過無數次了。我的意思是，考慮到我們對當前時代的預測有多好，我們相信我們的客戶一直在為我所說的淺度衰退做好準備。這些活動可能大約在一年前開始，並且他們繼續以這種方式做出回應。

You've been around this sector for quite some time. And I don't know if it will be different this time. But historically, the first thing that I've seen, and I think this is my fifth cycle in my 35-year career, what happens first is first thing the organizations do is they start to cut back on their use of flexible workers, whether they're staff or whether they're contract-oriented. The next phase, if things get tougher, they start to reduce their permanent staff. And then the next phase, when they start to believe that there's some forward look, they started to quickly bring flexible resources back on to address all the pent-up demand that is built up throughout the down cycle. And then once they have confidence, they start rehiring the full-time staff.

您在這個領域已經有一段時間了。我不知道這次是否會有所不同。但從歷史上看，我看到的第一件事，我認為這是我35 年職業生涯中的第五個週期，首先發生的是組織做的第一件事是他們開始減少對靈活員工的使用，無論是他們是員工還是合同導向型。下一階段，如果情況變得更困難，他們就會開始減少長期員工。然後在下一階段，當他們開始相信存在一些前瞻性時，他們開始快速恢復靈活的資源，以解決整個下行週期中積累的所有被壓抑的需求。一旦他們有了信心，他們就會開始重新僱用全職員工。

So where we see our clients at this point in time is they are in a wait and see like everybody else in the market. They don't know what's around the corner. And we work with predominantly Fortune 500 organizations, some of the most sophisticated organizations on the planet. No one has that crystal ball, so they are operating with caution. The good news is unlike some of the more abrupt, I guess, cycles that I've been involved with in the back -- in the past, which has really been just about every cycle, has been an abrupt wake-up call. I think the foreshadowing of this has caused organizations to react very differently.

因此，我們目前看到的客戶與市場上的其他人一樣都在觀望。他們不知道即將發生什麼。我們主要與財富 500 強組織合作，其中一些是地球上最複雜的組織。沒有人有這樣的水晶球，所以他們正在謹慎操作。我想，這個好消息與我之前經歷過的一些更突然的周期不同——在過去，幾乎每個週期都是一個突然的警鐘。我認為這個伏筆已經導致組織的反應截然不同。

So I'd say the positive with that, usually, when it's abrupt, we see projects ended and we see mass exodus of consultants and projects coming to a complete halt. We haven't seen that with this cycle. All we've seen is really trimming around the edges to basically keep projects moving along, albeit maybe deliver them in a little bit longer time period. So Kye, I don't know if you have any additional color you may want to add.

所以我想說的是積極的一面，通常，當事情突然發生時，我們會看到項目結束，我們會看到顧問和項目的大規模外流完全停止。我們在這個週期中還沒有看到這種情況。我們所看到的只是在邊緣進行修整，以基本上保持項目的進展，儘管可能會在更長的時間內交付它們。所以凱，我不知道你是否有任何額外的顏色想要添加。

No, I think you covered it, Joe. I mean that's the main thing we're seeing is projects aren't getting canceled. They're delaying them, taking longer to get approvals done. But they're still staying on a path with their strategic initiatives. We're seeing a lot in modernization efforts we're seeing them continue to look at cloud migration, those types of things, but they're definitely trimming back as they wait and see what the future holds.

不，我想你已經報導過了，喬。我的意思是，我們看到的主要事情是項目沒有被取消。他們正在拖延，需要更長的時間才能完成批准。但他們仍然堅持自己的戰略舉措。我們在現代化工作中看到了很多，我們看到他們繼續關注云遷移等類型的事情，但他們在等待並看看未來會發生什麼時肯定會縮減規模。

And Mark, important to note, when we talk trim back, what we're seeing with our clients is similar (inaudible) a microcosm, which means we are spending more on a year-over-year basis in terms of technology. We have more projects than we have capital to be able to address right now. And by the way, in this climate, every day, that backlog of pent-up demand and projects is just building, and we see that with our clients because the pace and need for technology has not changed. That's why we get excited about managing through this and playing for the other side.

馬克，需要注意的是，當我們談論削減時，我們在客戶身上看到的是類似（聽不清）的縮影，這意味著我們在技術方面的支出逐年增加。我們的項目數量超出了我們目前能夠處理的資金數量。順便說一句，在這種氣候下，每天，被壓抑的需求和項目的積壓都在不斷增加，我們在客戶身上看到了這一點，因為技術的步伐和需求沒有改變。這就是為什麼我們對解決這個問題並為另一方效力感到興奮。

Our business has always peaked the peak, ended up higher not just from a revenue standpoint but also from a profitability standpoint. And we see a lot of demand being built up during these times as all of the organizations are having to operate with this degree of caution.

我們的業務總是達到頂峰，不僅從收入的角度來看，而且從盈利的角度來看，最終都更高。我們看到在這段時間裡需求不斷增加，因為所有組織都必須謹慎運營。

I appreciate the answer there. Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in terms of the Flex gross margin with regards to this quarter. You mentioned there's obviously some additional health costs. And then in addition to that, some -- a little bit of bill pay compression. How much -- how should we think about this past quarter and the implications? Or what's implied in terms of the guidance for Q3? Is it going to be relatively close to Q2? Or should we expect a little bit more compression kind of like what you ended up seeing a year ago going from Q2 to Q3?

我很欣賞那裡的答案。您能否多談談您在本季度的 Flex 毛利率方面所看到的情況。您提到顯然會有一些額外的健康費用。除此之外，還有一些——一點點賬單支付壓縮。我們應該如何看待過去的季度及其影響？或者第三季度的指導暗示了什麼？它會相對接近第二季度嗎？或者我們是否應該期待更多的壓縮，就像一年前從第二季度到第三季度所看到的那樣？

Mark, this is Dave. So yes, I think -- and obviously, we're talking about technology here. You are right. In the second quarter, we saw a little bit higher health care costs. Spreads themselves sequentially, we're pretty stable, and we've seen that in the last couple of quarters. So the year-over-year decline happened about 3 quarters ago. So as we look forward, we expect, to your point, for the spreads and overall Flex margins and Technology to be relatively stable. And I think important to note, and Joe and Kye both touched on the critical need for resources, bill rates are up again sequentially.

馬克，這是戴夫。所以，是的，我認為 - 顯然，我們在這裡談論的是技術。你是對的。在第二季度，我們看到醫療保健成本略有上升。依次傳播，我們非常穩定，我們在過去幾個季度已經看到了這一點。因此，同比下降大約發生在三個季度前。因此，就您的觀點而言，展望未來，我們預計利差、整體 Flex 利潤率和技術將相對穩定。我認為值得注意的是，喬和凱都談到了對資源的迫切需求，賬單利率再次上漲。

So there's still demand out there for us. So we view that as a good sign as we sit here in a bit slower environment that we're not seeing any declines in bill rates. So again, we have said for a long time that we expected stability in spreads and margins, and our viewpoint has not changed.

所以我們仍然有需求。因此，我們認為這是一個好兆頭，因為我們所處的環境稍顯緩慢，我們沒有看到賬單利率有任何下降。因此，我們長期以來一直表示，我們期望點差和利潤率保持穩定，我們的觀點沒有改變。

Great. And then you took some actions, you gave us a feel for what that would reduce your run rate cost on a per quarter basis, but it sounds like that's only going to be partially reflected in the coming quarter. What percentage of the full run rate cost would you end up absorbing here or benefiting from here in the third quarter?

偉大的。然後你採取了一些行動，你讓我們感覺到這將降低你每季度的運行成本，但聽起來這只會在下個季度得到部分反映。您最終會在第三季度吸收或從中受益的全部運行成本的百分比是多少？

Yes. So Mark, maybe I'll just repeat first what I said in the prepared remarks. So the annualized cost savings are expected to be about $14 million, which is about $3.5 million for a full quarter. The actions that we're taking that is going to reduce that structure actually just happened, frankly, today. So we have about 2/3 of the quarter that we will benefit from that. As I've mentioned, that reflected in the quarter. It's about a $0.22 impact, the charge itself, so about 1.5% impact on SG&A costs. So we're going to get 2/3 of the benefit now, but as we move forward, obviously, we'll see that full benefit on a quarterly basis.

是的。馬克，也許我會先重複一下我在準備好的發言中所說的話。因此，預計每年節省的成本約為 1400 萬美元，整個季度約為 350 萬美元。坦率地說，我們正在採取的旨在減少這種結構的行動實際上今天才剛剛發生。因此，本季度大約 2/3 的時間我們將從中受益。正如我所提到的，這反映在本季度。費用本身大約會產生 0.22 美元的影響，因此對 SG&A 成本的影響約為 1.5%。因此，我們現在將獲得 2/3 的收益，但隨著我們繼續前進，顯然，我們將在每個季度看到全部收益。

Your next question comes from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. .

您的下一個問題來自特雷弗·羅密歐和威廉·布萊爾。 。

Maybe first, just wanted to touch on kind of demand trends throughout the quarter. I think maybe Kye mentioned April was kind of relatively stable. There was a slight softening in May and June. I guess is there kind of a way to maybe quantify how much demand softened in May and June? And then if you kind of compare June to the guidance that the Q3 revenue guidance assumed demand stays kind of similar to those June levels or is it more of a step down from that run rate?

也許首先，只是想談談整個季度的需求趨勢。我想也許凱提到四月相對穩定。五月和六月略有軟化。我想有沒有一種方法可以量化 5 月和 6 月需求疲軟的程度？然後，如果您將 6 月份的指引與第三季度收入指引假設的需求與 6 月份的水平保持類似的指引進行比較，還是比運行率下降更多？

Yes. Generally, as we talked about, clients have just been really cautious and they're stretching out the length of projects. They're being more selective. They're also delaying some projects. But again, I think that I'll speak to things when we come out of this, but they're not canceling on, which, again, encourages me that we're seeing a lot higher levels of approval, this decision-making process too. So I don't think it's necessarily just about the demand. I think it's really about that lengthening of approval process and looking at more candidates and clients being more selective than what we saw in the previous couple of years.

是的。一般來說，正如我們所討論的，客戶非常謹慎，他們正在延長項目的期限。他們變得更加挑剔。他們還推遲了一些項目。但我想，當我們走出困境時，我會談論一些事情，但他們並沒有取消，這再次鼓勵我，我們看到了更高級別的批准，這個決策過程也。所以我認為這不一定只是需求的問題。我認為這實際上是因為審批流程的延長，以及比我們前幾年看到的更多候選人和客戶更具選擇性。

Yes. Trevor, this is Dave Kelly again. So just to kind of amplify Kye's comments in her prepared remarks as well. So we are seeing, obviously, projects that are completed, right? So as we looked at May, June and into July, we're still getting new starts. There's no question that there is demand in the marketplace, but those projects that we're scanning are quite -- very slightly exceeding those new people that we're putting on assignment.

是的。特雷弗，我又是戴夫·凱利。因此，我也想在凱伊準備好的發言中進一步闡述她的評論。顯然，我們看到項目已經完成，對吧？因此，當我們回顧五月、六月和七月時，我們仍然有新的開始。毫無疑問，市場上有需求，但我們正在掃描的項目相當——非常輕微地超過了我們分配的新人員。

So as we contemplated guidance in the third quarter, we didn't make any change to that expectation. Obviously Joe touched on uncertainty. Basically, we chose to take a mathematical approach to third quarter guidance, and that's how we build it.

因此，當我們考慮第三季度的指導時，我們沒有對這一預期做出任何改變。顯然喬談到了不確定性。基本上，我們選擇採用數學方法來製定第三季度指導，這就是我們構建它的方式。

Okay. That was helpful. And then just, I guess, following up on the cost reductions. I understand those are some difficult decisions to make. Just kind of wanted to get your assessment on whether you think the cost structure is fully rightsized at this point and I guess if the macro did happen to get even worse from here, how much room you might have for further cost reductions and where you might be able to make those cuts?

好的。這很有幫助。我想，然後就是跟進成本削減。我知道做出這些決定是很困難的。只是想了解一下您是否認為目前的成本結構已完全合理化，我想如果宏觀經濟確實從這裡變得更糟，您可能還有多少進一步降低成本的空間以及您可以在哪裡能夠進行這些削減嗎？

Yes. I guess a couple of comments that I would make, right? I think it's important for you to understand how we think about things when things are a little slower. Certainly, we made some reductions. Obviously, you can see the top line, and so we've made sure that we're appropriately building a cost structure to support that, to maintain capacity as well as continue to invest in strategic initiatives that we think will help us in the long term.

是的。我想我會發表一些評論，對吧？我認為了解當事情進展緩慢時我們如何看待事情對你來說很重要。當然，我們做了一些削減。顯然，你可以看到營收，因此我們確保適當構建成本結構來支持這一點，維持產能並繼續投資於我們認為長期對我們有幫助的戰略舉措學期。

So we're very comfortable with the actions that we took. We think that they were appropriate for the -- for what we're seeing here and the trends that we're seeing. So unless things change, we're comfortable. I don't think anybody here is an economist. So Joe mentioned mild recession. If something happens I would say that it's significantly worse than that, we'll look at it.

所以我們對我們所採取的行動感到非常滿意。我們認為它們適合我們在這裡看到的情況以及我們看到的趨勢。因此，除非情況發生變化，否則我們會感到很舒服。我認為這裡沒有人是經濟學家。所以喬提到了溫和的衰退。如果發生什麼事情，我會說情況比這更糟糕，我們會看看。

So hard to tell you whether things will change. And so you can tell me what's going to happen with the economy. So I think we're very comfortable where we are, feel good about this. I'd mentioned, obviously, when you look at the (inaudible) that we taken and when you look at the profile that we have as a firm, our profitability levels, if you look at these revenue levels are far higher than they were before. So we've gotten a lot of benefit from the investments that we've made in the past. We expect to continue to do that. And again, we've always talked about capacity. I said it already. We feel very good when we see an inflection point that we will be able to capitalize on that without being behind the curve. So we think prudent decisions have been made.

很難告訴你事情是否會改變。所以你可以告訴我經濟將會發生什麼。所以我認為我們對現在的處境感到非常舒服，對此感覺良好。顯然，我提到過，當你看看我們採取的（聽不清）以及我們作為一家公司的概況時，我們的盈利水平，如果你看看這些收入水平遠遠高於以前。因此，我們從過去的投資中獲得了很多好處。我們希望繼續這樣做。再說一遍，我們一直在談論容量。我已經說過了。當我們看到一個拐點時，我們感覺非常好，我們將能夠利用它而不落後於曲線。所以我們認為已經做出了審慎的決定。

Your next question comes from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Northcoast Research 的 Kartik Mehta。

Dave, just to hit on the cost actions you took, you talked about saving about $3.5 million on a full run rate quarter. And I'm wondering, is that $3.5 million in absolute dollars you anticipate saving? Or is that just -- you still have to deal with inflation, so it's really not $3.5 million that we'll see throughout a quarter?

戴夫，為了談及您採取的成本行動，您談到在整個運行率季度節省約 350 萬美元。我想知道，您預計會節省 350 萬美元嗎？或者只是——你仍然需要應對通貨膨脹，所以整個季度我們不會看到 350 萬美元？

No, we'll see $3.5 million a quarter, Kartik. Yes. So we're confident in that number.

不，我們每個季度會看到 350 萬美元，Kartik。是的。所以我們對這個數字充滿信心。

Yes, I realized and when we look at -- go ahead.

是的，我意識到，當我們看到——繼續吧。

No, no, no, go right ahead. I apologize.

不不不，繼續吧。我道歉。

No, no, ask your questions.

不不不，問你的問題。

I know you, Kye, you talked a little bit about maybe sales cycles. And I'm wondering projects are being elongated, but are sales cycles not being elongated? And if so, are you a little surprised by that?

我認識你，凱，你談到了銷售週期。我想知道項目正在延長，但銷售週期沒有延長嗎？如果是這樣，您對此感到有點驚訝嗎？

The sales cycles are being elongated because, again, as I mentioned, there's longer approval process and more scrutiny around budget than we've seen in recent years. They're still approving -- most of our clients are still approving new projects. We're still adding staff. It's just not at the rate we've seen in the past couple of years because of the cautiousness, I think, out there in the marketplace.

正如我所提到的，銷售週期正在延長，因為與近年來相比，審批流程更長，預算審查也更多。他們仍在批准——我們的大多數客戶仍在批准新項目。我們仍在增加人員。我認為，由於市場上的謹慎態度，這與我們過去幾年看到的速度有所不同。

Yes, I'd say think of it this way. As organizations get more cautious, there's more steps in the process to get those approvals. Where a direct line manager might have had the authorization to make those approvals and now it's having to go up the chain of command or maybe even going into the finance organization because, again, everybody is looking forward on what's happening with their revenue trajectories and so on and so forth. And that's what just slows down that overall approval process.

是的，我想說這樣想。隨著組織變得更加謹慎，獲得這些批准的過程中需要採取更多步驟。直屬經理可能有權進行這些批准，但現在必須向上級指揮，甚至可能進入財務組織，因為每個人都在期待自己的收入軌跡發生什麼，所以等等。這就是減慢整個審批流程的原因。

Your next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS.

您的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Josh Chan。

I was wondering if you could comment on whether you're seeing any differences in trend between the staffing versus managed team versus managed projects side of the business? I know that they have different lengths, but just wondering if you feel like clients are valuing those pieces differently?

我想知道您是否可以評論一下您是否發現業務的人員配備、管理團隊和管理項目方面之間的趨勢存在任何差異？我知道它們有不同的長度，但只是想知道您是否覺得客戶對這些作品的評價不同？

I would say that our managed teams, managed projects, those types of things are holding up a little better. Again, clients are looking at what do we need to do. Okay, if this is mission critical and we need it done today, yes, they're continuing at the levels that we've committed to from a managed team, managed project perspective. There's been -- we haven't seen any of those get canceled. We have seen a couple of them where they've said we'd rather elongate the delivery date and expand the project out a few more months, and so they can trim a little bit from the current run rate.

我想說的是，我們管理的團隊、管理的項目，這些類型的事情都保持得更好一些。同樣，客戶正在考慮我們需要做什麼。好的，如果這是關鍵任務並且我們今天需要完成它，是的，他們將繼續按照我們從託管團隊、託管項目的角度承諾的水平進行。我們還沒有看到任何一個被取消。我們見過一些他們說我們寧願延長交付日期並將項目再延長幾個月，這樣他們就可以稍微削減當前的運行速度。

But I think, overall, you're seeing those higher-level skill rates you're seeing in managed teams, managed projects have a little bit more certainty and trajectory than what you're seeing in some of the other space.

但我認為，總體而言，您在託管團隊、託管項目中看到的更高水平的技能率比您在其他領域看到的具有更多的確定性和軌跡。

That's very helpful. I guess my follow-up is, Joe, you mentioned the deferred spending and how they usually come back. Could you kind of talk about how long do you think your clients can defer these spending without impacting their competitiveness based on what you know about the projects?

這非常有幫助。我想我的後續行動是，喬，你提到了延期支出以及它們通常如何回來。根據您對項目的了解，您能否談談您認為您的客戶可以推遲這些支出多長時間而不影響他們的競爭力？

Yes, I would say, well, given that everybody is really industry by industry dealing with the same dynamics, there aren't really outliers. So the only dynamic that really differentiates anybody is if you had a disruptive or disruptor organization within that space. That would come into play. We've also seen a lot of pullbacks from VC funding and things of those nature, so that landscape has not been immune to what's going on as well.

是的，我想說，考慮到每個行業都在處理相同的動態，所以不存在真正的異常值。因此，真正使任何人與眾不同的唯一動力是你在該領域是否擁有顛覆性或破壞性組織。這就會發揮作用。我們還看到風險投資和類似情況的大量撤退，因此景觀也未能倖免於正在發生的事情。

So they're going to react collectively unless somebody happens to make a different bet and elect to spend more money at the expense of managing their P&L and their quarterly earnings and things of that nature. And then I think we'll see the competitors react, but we have yet to see any breakout organizations go -- move from that whole herd mentality. So it's going to be when visibility of the market becomes more stable. That's when we'll see everybody migrate all at once, which is going to create then a whole another frenzy, no different than we experienced coming out of the pandemic, where everybody is now competing massively for the same talent to try and accelerate all their projects.

因此，他們將集體做出反應，除非有人碰巧做出了不同的賭注，並選擇以犧牲管理損益表、季度收益和類似性質的事情為代價花更多的錢。然後我想我們會看到競爭對手做出反應，但我們還沒有看到任何突破性的組織擺脫這種從眾心態。所以當市場的能見度變得更加穩定時就會發生。到那時，我們將看到每個人都同時遷移，這將引發另一場瘋狂，與我們走出大流行時所經歷的沒有什麼不同，每個人現在都在為同樣的人才而大規模競爭，試圖加速他們所有的發展。項目。

So that day will come. It does every cycle. And with technology being more dependent on every business strategy even more so today than it was during the Great Recession when mobility and data and cloud were all coming about, we will see that on the other side of this. How -- to what extent? I'm not sitting here by any means calling that we're going to see something like we did from a pandemic standpoint over the last 2 years where the market was probably the most robust market I've seen in my 35 years in this business, but we will see a very healthy operating climate.

所以那一天將會到來。每個週期都會這樣做。如今，技術更加依賴於每項業務戰略，甚至比大衰退期間移動性、數據和雲都出現時更加依賴，我們將看到這一點的另一面。怎樣——到什麼程度？無論如何，我坐在這裡並不是說我們會看到過去兩年從流行病角度來看的情況，這個市場可能是我從事這個行業 35 年來見過的最強勁的市場，但我們將看到一個非常健康的運營環境。

Your next question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist Securities.

您的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Tobey Sommer。

This is Jasper Bibb on for Tobey. You mentioned the stabilization in technology clients earlier in the call. So I just wanted to ask if there are any other specific industry verticals where demand trends that maybe surprised you to the downside or the upside in the past few months?

我是托比的賈斯珀·比伯。您早些時候在電話會議中提到了技術客戶的穩定。所以我只是想問是否還有其他特定的垂直行業，其需求趨勢在過去幾個月中可能會令您感到驚訝的下行或上行？

I think the area where we've seen growth, as I mentioned in my comments, is really in the energy and utilities space. There's a lot of critical transformation going on right now. There's a lot of modernization. They're looking to apply technology to both help them be more productive but also just modernize their systems. So that's been the area where we've seen warrant increases in projects and spend.

正如我在評論中提到的，我認為我們看到增長的領域確實是在能源和公用事業領域。目前正在發生許多關鍵的轉變。有很多現代化。他們希望應用技術來幫助他們提高生產力，同時也使他們的系統現代化。因此，這就是我們看到項目和支出值得增加的領域。

And it's regulated and you have -- yes. And you just have to continue with the regulations too.

它受到監管，而且你有——是的。你也必須繼續遵守規定。

Yes. No, that makes sense. Is there any way to quantify how much incremental G&A you might save with the exit of the remaining office footprint over the next 2 or 3 years?

是的。不，這是有道理的。有沒有什麼方法可以量化在未來 2 到 3 年內退出剩餘辦公室佔地面積後您可以節省多少增量管理費用？

Yes. Well, I think the comments that we made here, we've probably got, as you said, another 2 or 3 years. It's -- we already had a significant reduction in footprint. It's probably a couple of million dollars only. So if there's still some benefit here that will occur over time, but it's not a huge amount any longer. We've done a lot of that work.

是的。嗯，我認為我們在這裡發表的評論，正如您所說，我們可能還需要兩三年的時間。我們已經大幅減少了足跡。大概只有幾百萬美元。因此，隨著時間的推移，這裡仍然會有一些好處，但它不再是一個巨大的數額。我們已經做了很多這樣的工作。

Last one for me. Just based on the prepared remarks, it sounds like the repositioning in the FA business is now basically complete. Is there anything that you could share with us about maybe a new go to market there and how that business might be more sort of like, I guess, synergistic with the core tech business going forward?

最後一張給我。就目前準備好的發言來看，FA業務的重新定位目前已經基本完成。您有什麼可以與我們分享的，關於那裡可能是一個新的市場，以及該業務如何更像是，我想，與未來的核心技術業務產生協同作用？

As I mentioned, I think we've made good progress. We're continuing to see bill rates go up even in this environment. I think right now, the bigger issue for us is just the macroeconomic environment in the finance and accounting space.

正如我提到的，我認為我們已經取得了良好的進展。即使在這種環境下，我們仍會看到賬單費率繼續上漲。我認為現在對我們來說更大的問題是財務和會計領域的宏觀經濟環境。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Marc Riddick with Sidoti.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Sidoti 的 Marc Riddick。

I wanted to -- you covered a lot already, but I did want to sort of circle back on when you're talking to clients as far as the types of projects that they may be moving forward on, granted it's slow and delayed, but I was wondering if you've seen much in the way of changes to the catalysts that are driving the projects that are under consideration. Are you seeing anything that would sort of -- could end up being potential future green shoots when we sort of get client activity going again at a greater pace? And then I have a quick follow-up after that.

我想——你已經涵蓋了很多內容，但當你與客戶交談時，我確實想回想一下他們可能正在推進的項目類型，因為它是緩慢和延遲的，但是我想知道您是否已經看到推動正在考慮的項目的催化劑發生了很大的變化。當我們讓客戶活動再次以更快的速度進行時，您是否看到任何可能最終成為未來潛在的萌芽的東西？之後我會進行快速跟進。

Yes. I would say, in general, I mean, the same areas where clients have been focused, they're continuing to focus. So there's not anything of a material nature out there. We are hearing a little bit more in and around GenAI and how organizations are looking to leverage AI is a collective whole, which we really love because of the work that we do in data and cloud. Those things further support and are necessary on that front. So I would say that that's probably a futuristic green shoot. I don't think there's anything material of nature happening right now.

是的。我想說，總的來說，我的意思是，客戶一直關注的領域，他們將繼續關注。所以那裡不存在任何物質性質的東西。我們在 GenAI 及其周圍聽到了更多信息，以及組織如何尋求利用人工智能作為一個集體整體，我們非常喜歡它，因為我們在數據和雲方面所做的工作。這些東西在這方面提供了進一步的支持並且是必要的。所以我想說這可能是未來的萌芽。我不認為現在有任何物質的自然現象發生。

That's the nature of technology. There's always new technologies on the horizon, which, again, which is why we love what we do because we always adapt to where the demand is because of how nimble our model is and because of the real-time nature of going out into the market and get the best candidates that have [given] skills. So we're optimistic on those fronts.

這就是技術的本質。總會有新技術出現，這也是我們熱愛我們所做的事情的原因，因為我們總是適應需求，因為我們的模型非常靈活，而且因為進入市場的實時性並找到具有[給定]技能的最佳候選人。所以我們對這些方面持樂觀態度。

But I would say customers are after the same things that they've been after. I mean modernization, data, cloud and digitization of their businesses, I mean those things are not going away, and no one by any means has remotely come close to completing their road map of where they need to get on that front.

但我想說的是，顧客追求的東西和他們一直追求的東西是一樣的。我的意思是他們業務的現代化、數據、雲計算和數字化，我的意思是這些東西不會消失，而且沒有人能夠以任何方式接近完成他們需要在這方面取得進展的路線圖。

Again, I go back to -- Kforce is a microcosm of that. We did some work on our front office operations and systems for a matter of about 5 or 6 years. We've turned our attention to modernizing and digitizing our back office. And in parallel with that, we have a huge backlog that's building in terms of our front office. And this is the -- this is what our same clients are dealing with this. This is endless.

我再次回到——Kforce 是其中的一個縮影。我們花了大約五六年的時間在前台運營和系統上進行一些工作。我們已將注意力轉向後台辦公室的現代化和數字化。與此同時，我們的前台部門也積壓了大量的訂單。這就是我們的客戶正在處理的問題。這是無止境的。

Okay. And then I was wondering -- I guess my follow-up is around candidate availability and maybe if you could share a little bit about what you're seeing as far are there particular areas where you're beginning to see more candidates or be it skill levels or geographies. Or is there anything that we should be thinking about where you're beginning to see more talent available to you?

好的。然後我想知道——我想我的後續行動是圍繞候選人的可用性，也許你可以分享一些你所看到的情況，到目前為止，是否有特定領域你開始看到更多的候選人，或者是這樣技能水平或地理位置。或者說，在您開始看到更多人才可供您使用的地方，我們是否應該考慮一些事情？

I'll take that one. From a talent perspective, in those highly skilled areas, some of the areas that Joe just mentioned, cloud engineers, data analytics, those types of positions are still competitive. They're still hard to find quality people still very much in demand. Where we're seeing the softening is in those lower level positions. There's definitely been a softening as you move down from those areas and more of your production support or those types of things. There's been QA. There's been a softening. But in the high-skill areas, which is the majority of what we play in, it's still very competitive.

我會接受那個。從人才的角度來看，在那些高技能領域，喬剛才提到的一些領域，雲工程師，數據分析，這些類型的職位仍然具有競爭力。他們仍然很難找到仍然非常需要的優質人才。我們看到的軟化是在那些較低級別的職位上。當你從這些領域向下移動並獲得更多的生產支持或此類事情時，肯定會出現軟化。有質量檢查。已經出現了軟化。但在高技能領域，也就是我們從事的大部分領域，競爭仍然非常激烈。

Yes. I mean the high skill for the better part of the last 10 years has either been very low single digits unemployment or actually negative, and we haven't seen any of that change. So even with the softening that's taken place, there are still much demand. It's just those individuals are being moved around a little bit, maybe out of the more enterprise organizations that were much further ahead of the curve of adjusting for this softening that we're seeing, but then they're being absorbed by more mid-tier organizations that weren't able to compete for that talent.

是的。我的意思是，在過去十年的大部分時間裡，高技能失業率要么是非常低的個位數失業率，要么實際上是負數，而且我們沒有看到任何變化。因此，即使出現疲軟，需求仍然很大。只是這些人被稍微調動了一下，也許是從更多的企業組織中調出來的，這些組織在我們看到的這種疲軟的調整曲線上走得更遠，但隨後他們被更多的中層組織吸收了。無法競爭該人才的組織。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Joe Liberatore.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在將把電話轉回給 Joe Liberatore。

Thank you for your interest in support of Kforce. I'd like to say thank you to every Kforcer for your efforts and to our consultants and our clients for the trust in Kforce, allowing us to partner with you and allowing us to pretty much we look forward to speaking with you following our Q3 results. Thank you.

感謝您對 Kforce 的支持。我想感謝每一位 Kforcer 的努力，感謝我們的顧問和客戶對 Kforce 的信任，讓我們能夠與您合作，並讓我們非常期待在第三季度結果公佈後與您交談。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。