CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI) reported first-quarter revenue fell 8.2% from the year-ago quarter to $209.9 million.

The Philadelphia-based company's engineering solutions segment posted a 14.7% decline in first-quarter revenue to $109.7 million.

In addition, first-quarter revenue at CDI's Management Recruiters International segment fell 1.8% to $14.4 million, and its AndersElite segment posted a 23.1% decline in revenue to $21.6 million.

However, CDI's information technology solutions segment reported a 12.0% increase in first-quarter revenue to $64.3 million.

President and CEO Roger Ballou said signs of modest economic recovery continue, and the company is seeing improvement in its permanent placement business.

"While we continued to see softness in some areas of our engineering solutions segment -- particularly in the chemical, petrochemical and commercial aerospace markets and customer capital projects continued to be delayed -- we did see an encouraging uptick in both engineering project bid activity and engineering staffing request-for-proposal activity," Ballou said in a press release.

First-quarter gross margin narrowed to 19.8% from 20.7% in the first quarter of last year.

CDI posted a first-quarter net loss of $184,000 from $920,000 in the year-ago quarter.

The company estimated a year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue of between 2% and 5%.

CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI)
For the first quarter ended March 31, 2010, compared with the same period in 2009.
Revenue: $209.9 million, -8.2%
Net loss: $184,000 vs. net loss of $920,000