Revenue at CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI), a Philadelphia-based engineering and technology staffing and solutions provider, rose 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter to of $277.1 million from the same period last year. Gross margin slipped to 18.9 percent from 19.8 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Shares were up 0.56 percent in early afternoon trading to $17.78, and CDI had a market cap of $346.53 million, according to Yahoo!

“2013 was a challenging year for CDI, as substantial growth in both our OGC vertical and international business was offset by top line declines in our AIE and Hi-Tech verticals. In addition, our government, non-program staffing and MRI businesses saw a significant decline in revenues,” said CDI President and CEO Paulett Eberhart.

“We are taking actions to build revenues in all our target verticals and to invest in both non-program staffing and MRI, as we realign the organization to improve operational effectiveness,” Eberhart said. “These actions, combined with a more stable outlook for government agency spending, give us increased confidence that 2014 will be a year of revenue and profit growth.”

Revenue in the firm’s professional services staffing segment rose 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $180.7 million. The global engineering and technology solutions segment reported fourth-quarter revenue of $81.8 million, a 3.0 percent increase from the fourth quarter in the previous year.

However, revenue in CDI’s franchised Management Recruiters International segment fell 10.0 percent to $14.6 million. MRI revenue includes contract staffing as well as royalties and franchise fees.

CDI reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.3 million down 53.7 percent from $5.0 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

Fourth-quarter results include a pre-tax restructuring charge of $5.7 million related to the company's realignment announced in December 2013 and a pre-tax benefit from a legal settlement of $3.3 million.

For the full-year 2013, revenue fell 1.5 percent to $1.09 billion. Net income fell 33.4 percent to $12.9 million in 2013.

The company anticipates revenues for the first quarter in the range of $264 million to $274 million, a year-over-year decrease of 2.0 percent to an increase of 1.7 percent.

CDI ranks as the 17th-largest staffing firm in the United States and the 12th-largest staffing firm in Canada.