Revenue growth among the 21 publicly traded staffing firms that operate in North America decelerated at the sharpest rate in nearly seven years in the third quarter, according to a report released last week by Staffing Industry Analysts.

Quarterly revenue growth rose a median 4.2% year over year in the third quarter compared to 9.3% in the second quarter.

“A running trend of outperformance in total revenue growth among some of the larger staffing firms due to higher growth rates in certain European markets was broken in 3Q,” according to the report by Brian Wallins, senior research analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts. “For example, average adjusted revenue growth among the five companies with more than $1 billion of revenue in 3Q18 was 3.5% (Adecco, Randstad, ManpowerGroup, Kelly Services and Robert Half), compared to 4.1% for the remaining firms.”

Corporate members of Staffing Industry Analysts can download the full report online.