Third-quarter revenue fell year over year at professional staffing firm Resources Connection Inc. (NASDAQ: RGP). The company, which operates as RGP, pointed to a “choppy macroeconomic environment.” Clients are seeking more certainty in lower interest rates and improving economic indicators before moving ahead with major initiatives.

Revenue was down 19.6% year over year when adjusted for currencies and the number of billing days in RGP’s fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 24

The Irvine, California-headquartered firm announced results on April 3.

“Revenue performance was consistent with expectations, recognizing the client buying environment continues to be sluggish and we have the usual holiday impact during this quarter,” CEO Kate Duchene said in a press release.

Billable hours decreased by 12.3% because of reduced client spending. Overall, the average bill rage fell by 7.8% (also 7.8% in constant currency) because of a shift in revenue mix to the Asia Pacific region, which carries a lower average bill rate.

The average bill rate in Asia Pacific declined by 6.3% in constant currency. However, the US average bill rate rose by 0.9%.

“We believe we are well positioned to get back to growth and improve our financial metrics as clients give the green light to transformation work, including ERP cloud migration, automation and AI-related initiatives,” Duchene said.

RGP also announced that Bhadreskumar Patel was appointed as chief operating officer effective April 7. Patel has served as chief digital officer at RGP since September 2021. His previous experience includes serving as CEO of Veracity Consulting Group LLC, a digital transformation firm and subsidiary of RGP.

The company also recently announced that it acquired Reference Point LLC, a New York-based strategy, management and technology consulting firm focused on the financial services sector.

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Share price

Shares in RGP were down 8.14% to $11.28 as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time. During the past year, they were trading between $10.59 and $17.24.