The hiring environment throughout 2024 was characterized by ongoing caution among employers and job seekers alike, elongating decision cycles and subduing hiring activity and new project starts. Temporary workforce penetration rates for the staffing industry as a whole approached multiyear lows. While our talent solutions operations were impacted, conditions did begin to stabilize in the second half of the year.
Our business consulting subsidiary, Protiviti, proved more resilient and delivered sequential and year-over-year revenue growth in the second half of the year. All major solution areas―internal audit and financial advisory, technology consulting, risk and compliance, and business process improvement―showed gains. Protiviti’s strong performance underscores the effectiveness of its global, multi-industry business model, which provides deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help clients solve their most critical business problems.
Protiviti’s strong performance underscores the effectiveness of its global, multi-industry business model.
Full-year global revenues were $5.80 billion in 2024, down 9% compared with $6.39 billion in 2023. U.S. revenues decreased 9% versus last year to $4.52 billion while international revenues decreased by 11% to $1.28 billion, representing 22% of 2024 total Company revenues.
In 2024, net income was $252 million ($2.44 per share), with cash flow from operations totaling $410 million. In comparison, in 2023, net income was $411 million ($3.88 per share), and cash flow from operations was $637 million. We distributed $2.12 per share in cash dividends to our shareholders during 2024 for a total cash outlay of $220 million. We also repurchased approximately 3.5 million Robert Half shares during the year for $249 million. Return on invested capital was 17% for the year.
Our 2024 talent solutions revenues were $3.85 billion, with contract talent solutions revenues and permanent placement revenues both decreasing 14%. Protiviti revenues for 2024 were $1.95 billion, up 1% compared with 2023, accounting for 34% of 2024 total Company revenues.
Talent Solutions and Protiviti Collaboration
Our strategic focus on offering higher-skilled talent, both in talent solutions and Protiviti, continues to progress. Our investments in higher-skilled services carry many advantages—increased bill rates and gross margins, longer assignment lengths, greater client openness to remote talent, more full-time engagement professionals, and less economic sensitivity. Our revenue mix from higher-skilled positions now exceeds 50%, reflecting a steady rise over the past several years and a trend we expect to continue.
A significant contributor to Protiviti’s success has been the expanded use of contract professionals sourced through our talent solutions operations: They represented over 40% of the hours worked on Protiviti engagements during 2024. This synergy provides a strong competitive advantage, particularly relative to the Big Four accounting and consulting firms, with Protiviti continuing to gain market share.
Our revenue mix from higher-skilled positions now exceeds 50%.
Ongoing Technology Investment
Our commitment to innovation has significantly enhanced our service delivery model. Using technology, we elevate the skills, judgment and expertise of our professional recruiters with AI-driven tools that leverage our extensive proprietary data assets. We offer clients the ability to interact with us digitally through our website or directly with our recruiters, or both. This defines our world-class “recruiters plus AI” service model that clients have come to value and expect.
In 2024, we introduced an industry-first web feature that transparently displays our recruiters’ ratings for AI-matched candidates, further strengthening client confidence and trust. We were also honored during the year with a number of technology-related accolades―including multiple Stevie Awards recognizing our AI and machine learning advancements for the benefit of clients, candidates and employees.
Looking Ahead
We remain optimistic about the future. Global labor markets are resilient and job openings are significantly higher than during prior staffing downturns, suggesting substantial amounts of pent-up hiring demand. Unemployment rates are near historic lows, making it more difficult for clients to find the right talent on their own.
Business confidence has improved. The National Federation of Independent Business’s Small Business Optimism Index surged following the U.S. elections and has only modestly retraced those gains given more recent U.S. policy uncertainty. The latest February 2025 index is still above the 51-year average for the fourth consecutive month. Historically, when client and candidate confidence strengthens, hiring velocity and labor churn accelerate, leading to strong gains for our business in the early stages of economic recoveries.
Protiviti’s prospects and pipeline remain strong, and we expect continued growth into the coming year.
Demographic shifts, including an aging workforce, and clients’ preference for variable costs through scalable and flexible resources will continue to benefit our business model for years to come. We have weathered many economic cycles in the past, each time emerging to achieve higher peaks. We remain deeply committed to our time-tested corporate purpose: to connect people to meaningful work and provide clients with the talent and consulting expertise they need to confidently compete and grow.
Robert Half continues to be well-positioned to support our clients’ talent and consulting needs by leveraging our industry-leading brand, our people, our technology and our unique business model, which includes both professional staffing and business consulting services in a single enterprise.
We’d like to extend our gratitude to our employees across the globe, whose efforts made possible a number of prestigious accolades in 2024. Robert Half is among an elite few companies—and the only one in our industry—to be named as a Fortune® Most Admired Company™ for 28 consecutive years. We are also honored to be recognized as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For®―a testament to our people-first culture and a cornerstone of our ongoing success.
We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to our board of directors for their guidance and counsel during the year and to you, our shareholders, for your continued trust and support.
Respectfully submitted,
