HireQuest, Inc.

Anyone should require operator assistance during this conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. John Nesbitt, Investor Relations. John, you may begin.

Thank you. I'd like to welcome everyone to the call. Hosting the call today, I'll high request Chief Executive Officer Rick Hermans and Chief Financial Officer David Burnett. I'd 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, independent circumstances that will occur in the future. These statements include statements regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of High Request and members of its management, as well as the assumptions in which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in the High Request periodic report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the 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 change conditions. I would now like to turn the call over to the Chief Executive Officer of HireQuest, Rick Herman. Go ahead, Rick.

Thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. I'll begin by providing an overview of our financial and strategic highlights from the second quarter and year to date, and then I'll turn the call over to David who will share more details around our second quarter results. Our performance in the second quarter reflects our ability to deliver solid results despite what I think can accurately be described as a difficult economic environment. As I have frequently said, we have a unique model for the staffing industry, and the results this quarter reflect the strength of the franchise model. Our franchisees are entrepreneurial and incentivized to run a successful office no matter what the market environment, and we are seeing solid execution across the franchise base. This quarter also includes MRI network and the over 200 franchise offices we onboarded as part of that acquisition at the end of last year. MRI is the top permanent placement in executive search and professional staffing network based in the United States and one of the largest executive recruiting networks in the world. The addition of MRI allowed us to immediately scale our presence in the executive search segment and has further enhanced and strengthened our broader franchise model. In the quarter, our total revenue grew 12.4% to $9 million and franchise royalties increased 20.5% to 8.7 million compared to 7.2 million in the prior year period. System-wide sales for the quarter increased to 157 million compared to $120 million for the second quarter of 2022. While the majority of the growth in system-wide sales came from the addition of MRI, some of our small array offerings, such as DriveRequest and HigherQuest Health, also contributed. I would also like to point out that both our HigherQuest Direct and Snelling franchisees held their own despite the soft macro environment, with year-over-year declines of 4.4% and 9.2% respectively. For the six months ended June 30th, 2023, total revenue was $18.8 million, an increase of 25.3% compared to $15 million in the prior year period, and franchise royalties increased 30.7% to $18 million compared to $13.8 million for the six months ended June 30th, 2022. SG&A was $5.6 million in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 74.5%, compared to the second quarter of 22. The increase was primarily related to ongoing costs related to the MRI acquisition and increased workers' compensation costs in the second quarter. MRI was a large acquisition for us. As we continue to integrate MRI and drive synergies across our business, we expect to bring expenses down over the balance of the year. In the second quarter, we continue to make progress in excluding the effect of workers' compensation insurance Q2 SG&A was approximately $4.9 million compared to $5.7 million in Q1. We just want to make sure that we drive synergies thoughtfully and in a sustained fashion. Our positioning continues to improve with an increasingly diverse mix of staffing options and a strong presence across key geographic areas. As we continue to drive organic growth, integrate acquisitions into our business, and drive synergies, We are confident that we will be able to drive growth and improve performance for the long term. With that, I'll pass it along to our CFO, David Burnett, who will provide a closer look at our second quarter results. David?