HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 7, 2024 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

John Nesbett - IMS, Investor Relations
Rick Hermanns - Chief Executive Officer
Steve Crane - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mike Baker - D.A. Davidson
Kevin Steinke - Barrington Research

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the HireQuest, Incorporated Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open for questions, following the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to your host, John Nesbett, IMS Investor Relations. John, the floor is yours.

John Nesbett

Thank you operator. I’d like to welcome everyone to the call. Hosting the call today are HireQuest’s Chief Executive Officer, Rick Hermanns; and Chief Financial Officer, Steve Crane.

I would like to take a moment to read the safe harbor statement. This conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements and terms such as anticipate, expect, intend, may, will, should or other comparable terms involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. These statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of HireQuest and members of its management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based.

Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in HireQuest’s periodic reports filed with the SEC and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal securities law, HireQuest undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed conditions.

I would now like to turn the call over to the Chief Executive Officer of HireQuest, Rick Hermanns. Please go ahead, Rick.

Rick Hermanns

Good afternoon and thank you for joining our call today. We achieved slight growth in total revenue in the third quarter of 2024, compared to the third quarter of 2023 as well as sequential revenue growth of 8.5% when compared to the second quarter of 2024 as the market for temporary staffing solutions began to stabilize.

As we've mentioned before, the staffing industry has faced a particularly difficult environment in recent quarters as employers remain cautious in their hiring decisions, influenced by the presidential election and an unpredictable economic landscape. Additionally the spike in illegal immigration, which occurred from 2022 through earlier 2024 led to the influx of undocumented workers to the lower-tier labor force. While it's hard to quantify the impact on our business or the staffing industry in general, many of the jobs that we staff daily are the types of jobs undocumented workers fill.