In 2023, ongoing economic uncertainty impacted client and candidate confidence levels, which lengthened their decision time frames and elongated our sales cycles. While labor demand remained resilient and talent shortages persisted, hiring activity and new project starts were impacted across the globe. We navigated these complex conditions to address the critical talent needs of our clients by combining the power of our advanced, artificial intelligence-based technologies with the unique expertise of our specialized talent solutions professionals.
Our business consulting subsidiary, Protiviti, was less impacted economically due to its diversified suite of consulting solutions offerings, led by its regulatory risk and compliance practice, primarily in financial services.
Revenues across the enterprise did begin to show signs of stabilization in the later months of the year, contributing to a more positive backdrop as we head into 2024.
Full-year global revenues were $6.39 billion in 2023, down 12% compared with $7.24 billion in 2022. U.S. revenues decreased by 13% to $4.96 billion compared with 2022. International revenues decreased by 6% to $1.44 billion compared with 2022 and accounted for 22% of the total revenue for the Company in 2023.
Net income was $411 million, or $3.88 per share, compared with net income of $658 million, or $6.03 per share, in 2022.
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Protiviti contributed 30% of the Company’s revenue and 34% of the Company’s combined segment income for the year.
Cash flow from operations for the year was $637 million, down 7% from $684 million in 2022. In 2023, we distributed $1.92 per share in cash dividends to our shareholders for a total cash outlay of $206 million. We also repurchased approximately 3 million Robert Half shares during the year for $232 million. Return on invested capital was 26% for the year.
Our 2023 talent solutions revenues decreased by 15% to $4.46 billion — permanent placement revenue was down 22%, while contract talent solutions revenue was down 14%.
Protiviti revenues for 2023 were $1.93 billion, down 3% compared with 2022. Protiviti contributed 30% of the Company’s revenue and 34% of the Company’s combined segment income for the year. Protiviti continues to compete very effectively in the marketplace, benefiting from its focused and nimble solutions offerings and its differentiated mix of professional resources, including priority access to scalable contract talent at all skill levels sourced through our talent solutions practices.
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A key component of our focus on higher skills and one of our fastest growing areas is our full-time engagement professionals practice.
In 2023, we continued our long-term strategic focus on services related to higher-skilled talent, both in talent solutions and Protiviti. This carries many advantages — higher bill rates and gross margins, longer assignment lengths, increased client openness to remote talent, and less economic sensitivity. Our mix of revenues from higher-skilled positions has been steadily rising over the past several years and currently exceeds 50%. We expect this positive trend to continue.
A key component of our focus on higher skills and one of our fastest growing areas is our full-time engagement professionals practice. Here we offer professional talent to clients on a contract basis while they remain full-time employees of Robert Half — a particularly attractive career option offering both the security of a full-time job and the variety, complexity and career growth from working on many different types of engagements. Clients also value this service for the expertise of the broader candidate pool attracted to this work style and the continuity of project talent provided by the underlying full-time Robert Half employee relationship. This model is unique in the marketplace and not offered by most of our finance and accounting contract talent competitors.
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We continue to invest in new technology and innovation to deliver a world-class digital experience for our clients and candidates that is seamlessly connected to our specialized professional recruiters. Notable accomplishments in 2023 included the successful launch of our new global website and several enhancements to our award-winning mobile app.
We also made significant advancements in our artificial intelligence capabilities that further strengthen our ability to match top talent with hard-to-fill positions. We’ve been very successful in leveraging our proprietary data assets to enhance the AI tools our recruiters use to discover, assess and select talent for our clients.
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We will continue to invest in the tools we need to secure top talent for our clients by combining the power of our proven, AI-based technologies with the skills, judgment and expertise of our specialized recruiting professionals.
AI plays an increasing role in the hundreds of thousands of placements we make annually. Drawing from our unique database of over 30 million professionals, it provides our recruiters with a real-time selection of matching candidates based on skills, titles and work history. Our algorithms also consider recruiter-based assessments of a given candidate as well as a candidate’s level of engagement in the job market. Significantly, clients give us higher loyalty scores and have higher response rates when we involve our AI model in the candidate selection process.
We will continue to invest in the tools we need to secure top talent for our clients by combining the power of our proven, AI-based technologies with the skills, judgment and expertise of our specialized recruiting professionals. It is our unique and powerful combination of both that sets us apart in the marketplace.
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We enter 2024 confident in our ability to navigate the current business climate and optimistic about our growth prospects, which are built on our industry-leading brand, people and technology, and a unique business model that includes both professional staffing and business consulting services. We have weathered many economic cycles in the past, each time emerging to achieve higher peaks. While macroeconomic conditions have constrained client resource levels in the short term, this also results in pent-up demand for talent and projects as business conditions improve. Also, aging workforce demographics and clients’ desire for flexible resources and variable costs are structural tailwinds that are expected to benefit us for many years to come. With our current portfolio of talent and Protiviti solutions, we are excited about our future.
As always, we remain committed to our time-tested corporate purpose — to connect people to meaningful and exciting work and provide clients with the talent and consulting expertise they need to confidently compete and grow.
None of our success would be possible without the dedication and commitment of our employees across the globe. Their efforts made possible a record number of recent awards and accolades, including being named by Fortune® as one of their Most Admired Companies™ for the 27th consecutive year, as well as one of Fortune’s Most Innovative Companies and 100 Best Companies to Work For®, and selected by Forbes as one of the World’s Best Employers and America’s Best Large Employers.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to our board of directors for their trust and collaboration during the year and to you, our shareholders, for your continued support of Robert Half.
Respectfully submitted,
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