Welcome to ManpowerGroup Second Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode until the Q&A session of today's conference. This call will be recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. And now, I will turn the call over to ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO, Jonas Prising. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you. And welcome to the second quarter conference call for 2022. Our Chief Financial Officer, Jack McGinnis, is with me today. For your convenience, we have included our prepared remarks within the Investor Relations section of our website at manpowergroup.com. I will start by going through some of the highlights of the quarter, then Jack will go through the second quarter results and guidance for the third quarter of 2022. And I will then share some concluding thoughts before we start our Q&A session. Jack will now cover the Safe Harbor language.

Good morning, everyone. This conference call includes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. Actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Slide 2 of our earnings release presentation further identifies forward-looking statements made in this call and factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially and information regarding reconciliation of non-GAAP measures.

Thanks Jack. I’m just back from extensive trips through Europe, which included the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, VivaTech, which is one of the world’s largest technology and start-up events in Paris, and the Choose France Summit held just last week in Versailles, France. I will touch on these events as well as insights from clients during my business reviews later in the call. Turning to our financial results, in the second quarter revenue was $5.1 billion, up 6% year-over-year in constant currency, or 3% in organic constant currency. Our EBIDTA for the quarter was $190 million. Adjusting for the U.S. acquisition integration costs, EBITDA was $193 million, reflecting growth of 22% in constant currency year-over-year. Reported EBITDA margin was 3.7%, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 3.8%. Earnings per diluted share was $2.29 on a reported basis and $2.33 on an adjusted basis. Adjusted earnings per share increased 28% year-over-year in constant currency. After recent meetings with clients, policy makers and our teams across markets on my travels, I'm struck by the fact that despite the clouds weighing on the outlook of the global economy, the labor markets remain strong. Although there have been, and continue to be, disruptions from supply chain shortages in specific sectors such as automotive, construction and to a lesser degree logistics, our clients continue to prioritize acquiring talent in this environment. As a result, demand for our services remains strong across many of our major markets. Our clients are particularly interested in permanent recruitment, both in our Talent Solutions RPO business as well as in our staffing businesses, in MSP within Talent Solutions, in Experis IT resourcing and solutions, and across our Manpower Specializations. Our own quarterly, forward-looking hiring research across 40,000 employers in 40 plus countries - the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey…

Thanks, Jonas. Revenues in the second quarter came in at the low end of our constant currency guidance range. Gross profit margin came in above our guidance range. As adjusted, EBITDA was $193 million, representing a 22% increase in constant currency from the prior year period, or an 11% increase on an organic constant currency basis. As adjusted, EBITDA margin was 3.8% and came in at the high end of our guidance, representing 50 basis points of year-over-year improvement, or 30 basis points organically. Due to the significant strengthening of the dollar, particularly against the euro, year-over-year foreign currency movements had a much bigger impact than usual on our results. This drove an almost 10% swing between the U.S. dollar reported revenue trend and the constant currency related growth rate. After adjusting for the negative impact of foreign exchange rates, our constant currency revenue increased 6%. Due to the impact of net acquisitions increasing revenue about three percent and slightly more billing days, the organic days-adjusted revenue increase was about 2.5% compared to our guidance of 5%. The softer revenue trend was the result of more modest growth than anticipated in the Manpower brand. Turning to the EPS bridge, reported earnings per share was $2.29 which included $0.04 related to the Experis U.S. acquisition integration costs. Excluding the integration costs, adjusted EPS was $2.33. Walking from our guidance mid-point, our results included improved operational performance of $0.02, slightly lower weighted average shares due to share repurchases in the quarter which had a positive impact of $0.03, a slightly better effective tax rate which had a positive $0.01 impact and foreign currency impact was $0.06 more negative than anticipated in our guidance particularly due to the euro weakness during the quarter, and other expenses had a negative $0.02 impact. Next, let’s…

Thanks Jack. We continue to make progress in our strategy to Digitize, Diversify and Innovate, and in our investments to create talent at scale through MyPath and Experis Academy. On Diversification, our Experis business continues to grow very nicely globally, particularly here in the U.S., which is the largest market for IT resourcing and where our market share is strong, as well as in the U.K. and other key markets globally. We also expanded our higher value Talent Solutions offerings with a small acquisition in July in France which expands our capabilities in the public sector in France. Having just attended the Choose France event hosted by President Macron, I note that our industry is seen as an important contributor to achieve the French government’s ambitious labor market agenda for full employment, which is very encouraging. On Digitization we continue to execute our global technology agenda at pace, including the completion of the large PowerSuite implementation final wave of the U.S. Manpower business, which followed the U.S Experis implementation conducted in prior years. We also successfully transitioned the U.S. acquired Experis business onto our PowerSuite front office during the quarter, so our U.S. and Global IT teams have been quite busy executing these successful implementations in the past quarters. And on Innovation we continue to make excellent progress. For the 6th consecutive year, we were the Gold HR partner at VivaTech. Attended by half a million people for four days, VivaTech serves as an excellent platform from which we can showcase human capital innovation through our Experis IT resourcing and project solutions offerings as well as our tech innovations across the Talent Solutions and Manpower brands. During the event we also launched our New Age of Tech Talent report on which tech skills are most in demand globally. The innovations…

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Andrew Steinerman of JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Hi. Jonas, I wanted to just kind of go over the macro picture. I know you just gave third quarter guide that included an assumption of a stable economic environment here. Could you give us a sense of where you think we are in terms of the U.S. and European economic cycle as central banks are hiking interest rates to fight inflation? And have you seen wage inflation stabilized yet?

Good morning, Andrew. Yes, and that is – the question on everyone’s mind, where is this going. I think as you heard us say in our prepared remarks, the first observation is that from a client behaviour at this point we see no change in their desire to acquire more skilled workers of various kind across industries with the exceptions we’ve talked about such as automotive in some market and construction as well as logistics to a lesser degree. What is equally clear is that many of our clients are quite concerned about the economic outlook on the one hand, but when we ask them how they are feeling about their own business, they are saying that they are still working through the pent-up demand from the pandemic that they are looking for more talent, they are looking for our help in more ways than we were able to provide them even before the pandemic. So their view is that talent is going to be immensely important for them as they navigate through this turbulent environment. And as we’ve discussed in the past Andrew, during turbulent times, during growth times but with greater uncertainty our clients are looking to us to provide operational and strategic flexibility and certainly that’s what we would expect also going forward. So based on what we were seeing across labor markets, across the demand structure that we have today, I think we’re feeling good about our outlook. If you then look at this from a U.S. versus Europe perspective, the U.S. economy is very strong. Labor markets are very strong, but as you will have noted as we discussed in our last earnings call, wage inflation appears to be sitting around 5% and not moving higher in any discernible way. Wage inflation in Europe is lower than what it is in the U.S. and I think they are a few months behind, you can still see some wage inflation in Europe to a greater extent than what we see in the U.S. but we would expect this to stabilize as well and the rate of growth in the U.S., but we would expect this to stabilize as well and the rate of growth to come down slightly in the coming months, as well. So, so far, you can still see PMIs being positive, both in Europe and in the U.S. So we are in a slowing growth environment, Andrew, not, at this point, seeing any indications in terms of our client behavior in terms of a demand picture. And in terms of the strength of the labor markets, of anything that’s different to that.

Excellent. That was well said. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Andrew.

Thank you, Mr. Steinerman. Our next question is from the line of Kevin McVeigh of Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.

Great, thanks so much. And thanks for all the good color. And Jack or Jonas, can you give us a sense, it seems like the EBITDA was at the higher end of the range versus the revenue with the lower? Any puts and takes on profitability? Was that primarily mix or anything else that drove the EBITDA performance?

Yes, no, I'd be happy to talk to that, Kevin. Yes, I'd say the higher end of the range that, as you look at the GP Bridge you can see the higher margin offerings and businesses had higher growth across the board. So that's really the impact of Experis coming through. That's the impact of Talent Solutions coming through both of them at double digit growth. And when those businesses are growing faster, then that's going to drop down to both our GP margin, but importantly, our EBITDA margin. And so that's part of our on-going strategy to continue that trend. Certainly perm recruitment had had an impact as well. And so we've been seeing consistent, strong, firm hiring trends across our largest markets. And that's the biggest item in the GP bridge, and that that actually was a driver as well, in that top of the end range on the EBITDA margin. But other than that, Kevin, I'd say it was a pretty clean quarter. I know a year ago, we had pretty big direct cost adjustment that impacted earnings that we didn't really have that this year. So considering that, the up 50 basis year-over-year, if you consider the fact that last year was flatter 20 basis points, it's actually on an underlying basis in a bit better on an overall basis. So that's what I'd say in terms of the EBITDA trend.

That's helpful. And then just real quick, given the dramatic shift in currency, and just obviously the war in Ukraine and energy, are you seeing any shift from a client perspective in terms of outsized impact in different industries that you'd call out one way or the other? Again, just obviously, the currency seems like it's a big driver of where the guidance is at. But just any shift in behavior from an FX or just energy perspective within the client context?

Yes, no, no, I'd say from an FX perspective, we operate largely in the local currency in our market. So as a result, FX doesn't really impact client demand in our major markets, so we're not seeing an impact from FX. I think, from an energy standpoint, I think, similar to Jonas's comments, energy certainly has been a contributor to year-over-year inflation on a general standpoint, and certainly in Europe, it's been more severe. But so far that has not impacted demand for our services. So we have not seen a significant impact on certainly we've talked about the sectors that have been disrupted by supply chain issues. And some of that could be energy related, but on an overall basis, putting supply chain disruptions to the side, we really haven't seen a significant impact on demand for those reasons.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Jeff Silber of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Thanks so much. Jonas, you briefly alluded to President Macron in France. I know he won his election but his party did not win. Do you see any changes either positive or negative because of this, governmental structure going forward in France?

Spending a lot of time last week with all of the relevant ministries and hearing President Macron speak and as well I think they're -- there and hearing their thinking about how they intend to drive their structural reforms forward. They don't appear to be overly concerned with our ability to get the main pillars of their programs implemented. And from our perspective, what's of course important is the change in business tax that they have talked about. And listening to Bruno Lamar [ph] and asking him about that, he reaffirmed his commitment to the business tax change in the 2023 budget, which from our perspective is very positive. Talking to the labour minister in terms of our role, as Manpower Group in France, in helping them move to the next level of employment progress in terms of their stated objective for full employment, and how important they see our contributions there. We really feel very good about France, under the Macron administration, and also feel very good about our or their ability to drive through their structural reform programs that they have outlined during the election. What's important to remember, Jeff, is that you have a parliament that where the Macron administration is clearly and by far the biggest player, and you have many smaller players on the right and on the left, but most of the time have opposing views on various aspects of any program. So the likelihood that all of the various extremes would be able to unite and go against as a majority vote against the against the Macron administration seems very unlikely possible, of course, but very unlikely, and especially on the broader economic and labor market initiatives that we're interested in, we think that the Macron administration is going to be able to drive it through. And for that reason, I have to say that I feel very good about the French markets and the policies that are going to make France more competitive, and as such, for us an extremely important market to continue to do well in.

Okay, that's really helpful. And then shifting gears a little bit more broadly, you've mentioned energy related disruptions, a number of times, we've been reading potentially things get worse as we head into the winter. And if they cut off Russian supplies, especially in Germany, they're talking about rationing. I know, it's still may be early, but are you hearing any discussions along those lines from any of your clients, either in Germany, or anywhere else in Europe? Thanks.

Overall, just as, as you are, I'm reading in the, in the papers around the preparations that Europe is making for that very eventuality. And then the sessions with the French government last week, for instance, a lot of their hypothesis, and their planning is around the zero supply of gas into Europe and what that would mean. So Europe is preparing, I think, for all alternatives. And the Outlook, and they, they appear to feel that there are options and ways of working around that, no doubt, it appears that it could become quite difficult. Also, depending on the severity of the winter, if it's a mild winter, it would be less severe. If it's a more severe winter, it'd be it'd be more difficult. But as you can tell, these are things that are entirely out of our control. And coming back to what this means to us, at this point, we don't see any of our clients changing their behavior or asking us to do anything different than trying to find them the talent that they need to execute on their on their business strategies. And that's, for now, that's what we're seeing. We of course, are fully aware of what, what could happen, but how it would be resolved and whether it actually happens. That's, that's something we just have to be ready to react to. And as you well know, we are very used to reacting quickly to changes in market and we would do that in this case as well.

Okay, really appreciate the color. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Jeff.

Our next question is from the line of Mark Marcon of Baird. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Jonas and Jack. Wondering, can you talk a little bit about what your expectations are, in terms of cyclical sensitivity for the Talent Solutions business as well as Experis? Obviously, you've had a fairly significant shift in terms of the business mix. And I'm wondering, particularly Talent Solutions, how you how you think that and perm within operating if things slow down a little bit further.

Well we have a positive view on the diversification, as you heard me say, in the prepared remarks and Jack talked about the shift in our business mix and what that is doing to our operating and EBITDA margins. And we think that this increase, the diversification will serve us well, during a cyclical downturn. Perm tends to be more cyclical, sometimes then temporary staffing or resourcing solutions. But at the same time, I would say that, the environment that we're looking at from a labor market perspective, would make us think that then the proximity to the pandemic, how clients react in a downturn today, especially if it's of a lighter variety so maybe more of a technical recession or a shallow recession, if that's what if that were to happen, companies will remember what it was like to find talent after the pandemic. And they've worked very hard and are frankly, still working very hard at finding the talent they need to execute on their plans. So we think that the position that we have obtained across Manpower, Experis and Talent Solutions, both from a resourcing on the temporary or contingent side as well as on the perm side, will be very good for us as we go into a time of a need for greater flexibility from a company perspective, because we can ramp up and down quickly on their behalf. So I think the position that we have both from a business mix, diversification and the proximity to the pandemic, and the memories of what that kind of talent shortage market looks like, could give us actually a opportunity to experience more resilience in our business model than we what we have seen in the past.

That's great. And then, obviously, the U.S. business has diversified the most. And clearly we're seeing the benefit with regards to the margins. To what extent do you think of the U.S. as basically being a template that could be exported to a greater extent, across your international operations?

Well, clearly, we are driving that time, the diversification that you're seeing is due in the U.S. and many other in many other geographies as well. I would note, though, Mark, that the composition of the market itself in the U.S. is quite different from what business in Asia Pac, in Latin America, and especially in Europe. So I think we're going to be pushing the market, the market composition, in terms of our own diversification harder. But, it's important to remember that the market composition in the U.S. is also much bigger diversification than what you see in Europe and in Latin America and in Asia Pacific. But having said that, our strategy is the same. We're diversifying our business to higher margin, faster growing businesses within with between the brands, Experis Talent Solutions and Manpower and also within the brands. In Manpower, we see some good growth in higher levels, skilled specializations, both from a contingent side and especially from a perm side. And that is something that we will continue to drive across all of our geographies, Mark.

Great, thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kartik Mehta of North Coast Research. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Jonas, you've talked about your clients are a little bit concerned about the economy, but haven't made any changes. Is that surprising at all that clients are reading and a little bit concerned about the economy, but they're not making any behavioral changes or demand changes?

I think Kartik what we're seeing is the individual business doing well, having a great order stock and still working through the pent up demand and the supply chain issues that may have they may have experienced and that's what their staffing and recruitment activities in their businesses are indicating, but at the same time, they're looking out, they are reading and they are clearly understanding that the central banks across the world are trying to bring down inflation, which means cooling down the economy. So they are seeing what is the intent, but they are living a reality of a continued strong business environment for them. So this is a bit a bit of a time where, it's all going to be a question of, the economy bending. So economic growth, slowing labor markets, may be cooling off a little bit, but remaining very strong, and then coming back to improved growth or economies coming down into a recessionary environment of some kind. And I think that's what they are debating. But at this point, as we mentioned, in our prepared remarks, none of them most, most of the clients that we're working with are not experiencing drops in demand that are changing behavior. They continue to express difficulties due to supply chain, which is impacting their ability to produce or manufacture and deliver certain services. So that's what they're still dealing with at this stage.

And then just one last question, you talked a little bit about wage inflation and the rate of growth slowing? Is that translating into greater talent availability, or how does talent availability, availability look for you?

Well, so first, talking about inflation specific to our business model, as we've talked about in the past, generally, wage inflation benefits us, as the majority of arrangements, pass those wage inflation on to our clients. And that's what we need to do to be able to find and recruit the talent. But, in terms of impact on the global economy, clearly, there is going to be something to watch on the inflation and the recovery. And we know this is the top priorities. So although we can see the risk on inflation, generally speaking, as a cooling effect on the economy from our business model, it is still something that is working well.

And I would just add to that Kartik is Jonas has talked about in the past in terms of the availability of supply, the one market where we have been very vocal in the past where it was very difficult was the U.S. and we talked a lot about that last summer. And what we saw starting in the fourth quarter, and continuing into the first quarter was supply improved. So particularly in the Manpower brand and the commercial staffing side of things. And the update on that through the second quarter is those trends are generally holding up. So supply has improved in the U.S., which used to be the extreme. And generally, I would say that that is going to be an opportunity for us based on these current trends that we've been talking about. So although there could be some impact for all the reasons we've been talking about on this call, in terms of so many economic clouds that are out there, that should be favorable for supply. And so that will be an offsetting factor for us, but really on the commercial, staffing side.

Perfect. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Next, next one in queue is Mr. Tobey Sommer of Truist. Your line is now open.

Thank you. In the context of the macro uncertainty, but still an unwavering demand. How are you managing your growth in your own sales related staff across geographies and lines of business?

As you might have heard on the call, Toby, we are continuing to invest in talent in the areas there where we see great opportunities and notably, in the past quarter that's been in RPO in our perm offerings in Experis in Manpower specializations in the number of markets. So we still have had a forward leaning posture as it comes to investing in talent. And by now we are we are well above our pre pandemic levels of talent within Manpower Group and that we feel good about that also coming into the third quarter. Having said that, of course we monitor the evolution very closely and we're able to adapt that but at this point, we still think that there is opportunity for growth and where are those opportunities exists we’re investing and hiring recruiters as well as salespeople across the three brands.

And conversely, are there any pockets or geographies or lines of business where you slowed or halted investment in sales related stuff?

Well, you could see that, we're in the countries where we've had more difficulties, notably in in Germany due to the automotive sector, that's clearly an area where we're pulling back and we're being more cautious. Also, with an outlook maybe that is looks could look more more challenging. But even there within pockets, such as in Talent Solutions, and in permanent recruitment, we still feel good about adding resources in specific areas of Germany. So we make that assessment on a country by country on an a brand by brand basis, on an on-going and continuing basis as well.

And I’ll add to that, Toby. So to Jonas's point, it's really in those sectors where they've been impacted by supply chain that that as you would expect, we are not adding salespeople in those parts of the businesses and, and that's primarily Manpower. But when I look across our largest businesses, Japan, is probably near the top of the list. And again, Japan has been a very special market that grew during the entire pandemic, and continues to have very strong double digit growth. I would also add the U.S. in there, as we've talked about, we've been investing very heavily in the Experis and Talent Solutions businesses, you clearly see that coming through in the results. And I would include Italy in there as well. So Italy, has been growing very nicely. And Italy's had some very, very strong permanent recruitment, coming through as well. So just a little bit of color. I think, I would add the Nordics to the list as well, seeing very good positive growth trends there. And we're seeing good opportunities for continued growth as well.

Thank you very much.

Our next question is from George Tong of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Hi, thanks. Good morning. Taking a step back, you mentioned that you're seeing softer than expected organic revenue growth trends in the Manpower brand business. How do you reconcile that with your observation that labor markets remain strong? And I guess where are you seeing the pockets of weakness?

The pockets of weakness -- are far and few between if you look at the labor markets, you can see that participation rates in Europe are above pre pandemic levels, European unemployment is higher than it's been in decades, our employment here in the U.S. is also very high and unemployment, very low. And as Jack just mentioned, the only weaknesses that we would see really come from the pockets that are impacted by supply chain. And in the case of the U.S., you can see that some of the weakness comes through in sectors where the consumers are pulling back. Notably, a lot of tech companies that saw a surge during the pandemic, be it in streaming or tech products, they're pulling back a bit. Consumption is of retail product is being traded against experiences and travel, and leisure spend instead by the consumers. So you're seeing some shifts within but if you then step back, and you look at the overall picture of the labor market, the labor markets are still very, very healthy. And the weaknesses at this point are absorbed by excess demand and strength in other parts of the economy. And that's certainly true, both for the U.S. and Europe.

Got it. Based on the latest PRISM data in France, we're seeing a slowdown in French temp staffing growth. Can you elaborate on the labor market conditions there and the key drivers?

Yes. No, we can see that the PRISM data really reflects the reality of our own business, and we have seen the French market pool down. And I think the French market has been hit particularly around construction, access to materials as well as automotive being an important part of the French economy. But speaking to the labor minister last week, his outlook for the French labor market is still very bullish all the way through the end of the year. So despite an increase in retirements and as you know, George, retirements in Europe are mandated and they are age based. So the outflow from the labor market is known on a year-by-year basis, he expects job creation to offset that decline, participation rates to continue to move up and the labor market to continue to be in very good shape. So the French labor market is still looking strong, but it does have pockets of weakness in certain sectors. Now since most of those are supply chain related, which many companies believe will start to improve over the course over the coming 12 months, I would say, overall, the outlook at this point in France is -- for the labor market is still looking good.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Our last question in queue is Mr. David Silver from C.L. King. Your line is now open.

Yes, hi thank you. I had a question, I guess, about customer attitudes towards utilizing Manpower's outsourcing services. So I guess, situations differ regionally. But if we are in kind of a slower -- slowing economic environment, if Europe is facing maybe somewhat greater uncertainty related to geopolitical events, I mean maybe if you could just touch on the customer attitudes towards utilizing Manpower's outsourcing services. In other words, do they see a slowing economy as an opportunity to reduce their fixed cost base by tapping Manpower to handle some functions? Or is it alternatively the case that maybe internally if there is a slower economy, they might choose to handle more things captively? So how do you see outsourcing demand maybe in the U.S. and then in Europe responding to a slowing global economy? Thank you.

The two scenarios we think about, as you consider a slowing scenario, are really twofold. The gradual slowing and the knowledge of a slowing economy means that companies tend to want to become more flexible, more adaptable, able to pivot quicker should the market take a further turndown and that can be very beneficial for Manpower, frankly, Experis as well as Talent Solutions because companies in the U.S. and frankly, even to a greater degree in Europe, then resort to our services to provide them that strategic and operational flexibility. And in an environment where the labor markets are tight, and you have slowing growth rates, which improved the supply of available labor, we could have some good opportunities, not only in terms of improving the penetration rates as in the use of our services, but also benefiting from an increased supply of labor. Of course, in a more severe downturn, such as the one we experienced in 2008 and 2009, and to its extreme for the brief period of time during the pandemic, you get a very quick reduction in the provision of our services, and that comes mainly from a very big surprising downward trend or event that reduces the need for labor overall. So I guess those are the two scenarios you can think about and what we believe that what we're seeing at least now is knowledge of an economic headwind, slowing growth, but PMI is still being expansion in about 50 both in Europe as well as in the U.S. and elsewhere. So we still think, based on the outlook we have for the third quarter, that there are some good opportunities for us to continue growth, and that's why we guided the way we did into the third quarter.

Thank you very much. Can I just ask one quick question related to your cash deployment strategies and how it relates to the overall economy and the economic outlook? In other words, year-to-date, I think your working capital needs have increased by about $300 million. And you've also chosen to accelerate or to conduct share buybacks in dollar terms at a pretty high level. Just given the overall economic outlook as you see it, should I interpret your cash deployment programs here as indicating your increased confidence in the company's ability to manage whatever variations in the economic and demand outlook that you see? Or are there some other aspects that I should be taking into consideration? In other words, what's driving maybe the confidence or the cash deployment strategies for the first half, which seemed to me to indicate rising or a meaningful management confidence to -- in your ability to manage whatever scenario presents itself? Thank you.

Thanks, David, for that question. And I'll talk to that briefly. I think what I'd start with is our capital allocation strategy really remains unchanged. I think we have a pretty consistent track record. I would agree with your statement that we are confident. I think we are quite confident with the profile of the balance sheet, with our free cash flow opportunity and our cash collection efforts overall. So I think what you're referring to is we've been very open on our share repurchase element of our capital allocation plan that we're opportunistic. And what you're really reflecting is that we were opportunistic in the second quarter. You saw a higher level of share repurchases. So we were in the market in June, and we're able to average in some pretty good purchases at some pretty favorable price levels. So I would say you should expect that, that's going to continue to be an important element of the way we look at capital allocation overall. We've always said that the dividend is a priority. You saw the nice dividend increase that our Board approved in May. And so in a good, stable economic environment, you should expect progressive increases. And we were very proud of the fact that we held the dividend stable and the depth of the pandemic as well. But beyond that, if there is additional cash, the first thing is if there is an acquisition that will be devoted to the resources for the acquisition. You saw that with the Attain Group purchase. And if there isn't an acquisition, then you should expect that share repurchases will continue to be an important part of our overall capital allocation program. So I would say that. So thank you for the comments. And I'll turn it over to Jonas.

Thank you, Jack, and that brings us to the end of our second quarter earnings call. Thank you very much for attending. Thank you for your questions, and we look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Thanks, everyone. Have a good rest of the summer.

Thank you, speakers, and that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.