As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2021

Registration No. 333-254235

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

Amendment No. 1

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

GEE Group Inc.

7751 Belfort Parkway, Suite 150

Jacksonville, Florida 32256

(630) 954-0400 

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number,
including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Derek E. Dewan

Chief Executive Officer
GEE Group Inc.
7751 Belfort Parkway, Suite 150

Jacksonville, Florida 32256

(630) 954-0400 

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number,
including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box. ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

31,250,000 Shares

Common Stock

We are offering 31,250,000 shares of our common stock, no par value, at an assumed public offering price of $1.60 per share, the last reported sale price of our common stock on the NYSE American on March 26, 2021. The final public offering price of the shares of common stock being offered in this offering will be determined through negotiation between us and the underwriters in this offering and the last reported sale price of our common stock used throughout this prospectus may not be indicative of the final offering price.

Our common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol “JOB.” On March 26, 2021, the closing price of our common stock on the NYSE American was $1.60 per share.

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk, including that the trading price of our common stock has been subject to volatility and investors in this offering may not be able to sell their common stock above the actual offering price or at all. Before making any investment decision, you should carefully review and consider all the information in this prospectus, including “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18 of this prospectus and the risk factors incorporated herein by reference into this prospectus.

Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

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⁽¹⁾ We have agreed to pay the underwriters a cash fee equal to 7.5% of the gross proceeds raised in this offering, and to reimburse certain of their offering-related expenses. See “Underwriting” for additional information regarding underwriting compensation.

We have granted a 45-day option to the underwriters to purchase up to additional shares of our common stock solely to cover over-allotments, if any.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares of common stock to purchasers on or about ____________ , 2021.

ThinkEquity

a division of Fordham Financial Management, Inc.

The date of this prospectus is __________ , 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you any information other than that contained in this prospectus, the documents incorporated by reference herein or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you, and you should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus, the documents incorporated by reference herein or in any such free writing prospectus. In addition, this prospectus contains summaries of certain provisions contained in some of the documents described herein, but reference is made to the actual documents for complete information. All of the summaries are qualified in their entirety by the actual documents. Copies of some of the documents referred to herein have been filed, will be filed or will be incorporated by reference as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, and you may obtain copies of those documents as described below under the heading “Where You Can Find More Information.” Information contained in later-dated documents incorporated by reference will automatically supplement, modify or supersede, as applicable, the information contained in this prospectus or in earlier-dated documents incorporated by reference.

We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are not making an offer to sell nor a solicitation of any offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus, the documents incorporated by reference herein and any applicable free writing prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

For investors outside of the United States: we have not and the underwriters have not done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

Our logo and some of our trademarks and tradenames are used or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. This prospectus also includes trademarks, tradenames and service marks that are the property of other organizations. Solely for convenience, trademarks, tradenames and service marks referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ®, TM and SM symbols, but those references are not intended to indicate in any way that we will not assert to the fullest extent under applicable law our rights or the rights of the applicable licensor to these trademarks, tradenames and service marks.

We obtained the statistical data, market data and other industry data and forecasts described or incorporated by reference in this prospectus from market research, publicly available information and industry publications. Industry publications generally state that they obtain their information from sources that they believe to be reliable, but they do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information. Similarly, while we believe that the statistical data, industry data and forecasts and market research are reliable, we have not independently verified the data, and we do not make any representation as to the accuracy of the information. We have not sought the consent of the sources to refer to their reports appearing or incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

As used in this prospectus, unless the context indicates or otherwise requires, “the Company,” “our company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to GEE Group Inc. and its subsidiaries taken as a whole.

This prospectus is an offer to sell only the securities offered hereby, and only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell these securities in any state or jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary highlights information contained in other parts of this prospectus or incorporated by reference into this prospectus from our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) listed in the section of the prospectus entitled “Information Incorporated by Reference.” Because it is only a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider before purchasing our securities in this offering and it is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the more detailed information appearing elsewhere or incorporated by reference into this prospectus. You should read the entire prospectus, the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, and the information incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, including the “Risk Factors” and our audited and unaudited consolidated financial statements and the related notes incorporated by reference into this prospectus, before making an investment decision. Some of the statements in this prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See information set forth under the section “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Our Company

We are a provider of human resources solutions which primarily include the provision of temporary and permanent personnel in the professional and industrial services sectors to customers located throughout the United Sates. We, through our operating subsidiaries, deliver our services from a network of three virtual locations and 27 branch office locations located in or near several major U.S. cities, including, but not limited to, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Miami. We specialize primarily in the placement of information technology (“IT”), engineering, accounting and finance, health care, including medical assistants (“scribes”) who specialize in electronic medical records (“EMR”) services for emergency departments, specialty physician practices and clinics, and office support professionals for direct hire and contract staffing. We also provide temporary light industrial (blue collar) staffing services for commercial clients.

Our material operating subsidiaries include Access Data Consulting Corporation, Agile Resources, Inc., BMCH, Inc., Paladin Consulting, Inc., Scribe Solutions, Inc., SNI Companies, Inc., Triad Logistics, Inc., and Triad Personnel Services, Inc. In addition, we and our operating subsidiaries own and operate under other trade names, including Accounting Now, Ashley Ellis, Staffing Now®, SNI Banking, SNI Certes®, SNI Energy®, SNI Financial®, SNI Technology®, GEE Group (Columbus), General Employment, Omni One and Triad Staffing.

Services Provided

We provide our services to a broad range of customers from small and medium-sized businesses to the Fortune 1000. Our services include the provision of highly specialized contract or permanently placed professionals in several verticals, including IT, engineering, accounting and finance, office support and healthcare, including scribes who specialize in EMR services for emergency departments, specialty physician practices and clinics. We provide office support professionals for direct hire and contract staffing. We also provide temporary staffing services in the light industrial (blue collar) areas.

Our contract and placement services are principally provided under two operating divisions or segments: Professional Staffing Services and Industrial Staffing Services.

Our operating subsidiaries and end markets served under each of our operating divisions are as follows:

Professional Division

Industrial Division

Our Strategy

Our business strategy is multi-dimensional and encompasses both organic growth and growth through strategic acquisitions. The main tenants of our strategy are to:

Grow Organically By:

Growth Through Strategic Acquisitions:

We have historically grown significantly through acquisitions of complementary businesses. We intend to continue to expand our business through strategic acquisitions, subject to refinement of our business plans and management’s ability to identify, acquire and develop suitable acquisition targets in both new and existing desirable service categories. Along with our significant business growth to date, we have built a robust platform with the appropriate infrastructure and scalability, which we believe is necessary to assimilate acquisitions.

We continue to explore opportunities for potential acquisitions in the fragmented staffing industry. Our acquisition strategy includes, but is not limited to, targeting companies or transactions that we believe may have one or more of the following characteristics:

Marketing

We market our staffing services using our corporate and trade names in our respective vertical markets. As of March 1, 2021, we operated 30 branch and virtual locations in downtown or suburban areas of major U.S. cities in eleven states, including one located in each of Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Virginia, three offices in Colorado, two offices in Illinois and Massachusetts, four offices in Texas, seven offices each in Ohio and Florida.

We market our staffing services to prospective clients primarily through the use of the internet, specialty brands and corporate websites, digital direct mail campaigns, publishing annual electronic and widely distributed salary guides, advertising in tech, HR and accounting publications, attendance and booth displays at specialty trade shows, participation and membership in chambers of commerce, the Society for Information Management (“SIM”), Women in Technology and other business organizations, support for our employees’’ philanthropic activities, telephone marketing by our sales consultants and business development managers using our customer relationship management (“CRM”) tools to identify prospects, and through the electronic mailing of tailored employment bulletins which list highly-skilled candidates available for placement and contract employees available for assignment.

Competition

The staffing industry is highly fragmented with a multitude of competitors. There are relatively few barriers to entry by firms offering direct hire placement and staff augmentation services although significant amounts of working capital typically are required to fund the payroll of temporary workers for businesses providing contract staffing services. New entrants to the staffing industry are constantly introduced to the marketplace. Our competitors include sole-proprietorship operations, local and regional firms as well as national organizations. In the U.S., large national firms have annual revenue of approximately $100 million and up to $10 billion. Regional firms yearly revenue ranges from $10 million or more. The largest portion of the marketplace is the bottom layer of this competitive landscape consisting of small, individual-sized or family-run operations. With low barriers to entry, sole proprietorships and smaller entities routinely enter the staffing industry. Many competitors are larger corporations with substantially greater resources than ours; however, as described below, we believe we are able to compete successfully in the verticals and end markets in which we operate.

Our professional and industrial staffing services compete effectively by providing highly qualified candidates who are well matched for the position, developing and maintaining outstanding client relationships on a local level, responding quickly to client requests, and by establishing offices in convenient locations. As part of our services, we provide professional reference checking, scrutiny of candidates’ work experience and optional custom background checks. In general, we believe that pricing is secondary to quality of service as a competitive factor. During slow hiring periods, however, competition can put pressure on our pricing and we believe we are able to effectively compete on price in such situations.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe that we are able to compete effectively in the staffing industry because we have:

Recruiting

The success of our services is highly dependent on our ability to recruit and retain qualified candidates. Prospective employment candidates are generally recruited through job postings and contact made electronically using various internet tools as well as telephone contact by our employment consultants. For internet postings, we maintain our corporate web page at www.geegroup.com and our specialty brand web pages in addition to extensive use of internet job posting bulletin board services. We also maintain database records of applicants’ skills through our ATS to assist in matching applicant skills with job openings and contract assignments. We generally screen, interview and, in many cases background check, all applicants who are presented to our clients.

Recent Developments

The COVID-19 Pandemic 

COVID-19, which is widely acknowledged as having originated in Wuhan, China over a year ago has since spread throughout the United States and globally. Our business, results of operations, and financial condition have been, and may continue to be, adversely impacted in material respects by the COVID-19 pandemic and related governmental actions (including declared states of emergency and quarantine, “shelter in place” orders, or similar orders), non-governmental organization recommendations, and public perceptions, all of which have led and may continue to lead to disruption in global economic and labor markets. These effects have had a significant impact on our business, including reduced demand for our services and workforce solutions, early terminations or reductions in projects, hiring freezes, and a shift of a significant portion of our workforce to remote operations, all of which have contributed to a decline in revenues and other significant adverse impacts on our financial results. Other potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may include continued or expanded closures or reductions of operations with respect to our client partners’ operations or facilities, the possibility our client partners will not be able to pay for our services or workforce solutions, or that they will attempt to defer payments owed to us, either of which could materially impact our liquidity, the possibility that the uncertain nature of the pandemic may not yield the increase in certain of our workforce solutions that we have historically observed during periods of economic downturn, and the possibility that various government-sponsored programs to provide economic relief may be inadequate. Further, we may continue to experience adverse financial impacts, some of which may be material, if we cannot offset revenue declines with cost savings through expense-related initiatives, human capital management initiatives, or otherwise. As a result of these observed and potential developments, we expect our business, results of operations, and financial condition to continue to be negatively affected.

The ultimate economic impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to assess or predict and new information about its severity and actions to contain or treat its impact continue to emerge. The COVID-19 pandemic already has caused significant disruptions in general commercial activity throughout the U.S. and global economies and caused financial market volatility and uncertainty. A continuation or worsening of market disruption and volatility could have an adverse effect on our ability to access capital and on the market price of our common stock, and we may not be able to successfully raise needed capital. If we are unsuccessful in raising capital in the future, we may need to reduce activities, curtail or cease operations.

Cares Act Payroll Protection Program Loans

On May 5, 2020, we and certain of our subsidiaries entered into nine (9) unsecured promissory notes (“PPP Loans”) payable under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) in order to obtain needed relief funds for allowable expenses under the CARES Act PPP and received net funds totaling approximately $19.9 million. We believe we are eligible for forgiveness of all of our PPP Loans based on existing available guidance and have so far received full forgiveness from the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) for all outstanding principal and interest under the PPP Loan originally made to Scribe Solutions Inc. in the amount of approximately $279 thousand. We are in the process of applying for full forgiveness for our remaining outstanding PPP Loans and related interest. However, there can be no assurance that we will ultimately achieve forgiveness in whole or in part for our remaining outstanding PPP Loans and in that event, would have to repay the unforgiven loan balances in accordance with terms prescribed by the CARES Act.

Amendments to the Revolving Credit, Term Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of March 31, 2017, as amended, amended and restated, restated, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time (the “Senior Credit Agreement”)

On April 28, 2020, May 5, 2020, June 30, 2020 and December 22, 2020, we entered into the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth amendments, respectively, to the Senior Credit Agreement (the respective amendments, the “Seventh Amendment,” “Eighth Amendment,” “Ninth Amendment” and “Tenth Amendment”), by and among the Company, Scribe Solutions, Inc., Agile Resources, Inc. Access Data Consulting Corporation, Triad Personnel Services, Inc. Triad Logistics, Inc., Paladin Consulting, Inc., BMCH, INC., GEE Group Portfolio Inc., and SNI Companies, Inc., each a subsidiary of the Company listed as a “Guarantor” on the signature pages thereto each lender named therein and MGG Investment Group LP, as administrative agent, collateral agent and term loan agent for the lenders (“MGG”). The Seventh Amendment contained several features beneficial to us, including an extension of our senior debt maturity for two years, lower cash interest, and postponement and reductions of quarterly principal payments. In exchange, the Company agreed to replace the lower cash interest with pay-in-kind (“PIK”) interest on the term loan portion of its senior debt pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement to pursue, negotiate, and execute conversions of all of our outstanding subordinated debt and preferred stock into shares of our common stock, and to incur restructuring and exit fees totaling approximately $5.0 million payable in cash or stock to the senior lenders at a future date. The Eighth and Ninth Amendments were entered into enable and provide conforming changes to the Senior Credit Agreement so that the Company could obtain its PPP Loans and complete the repurchases, settlements and/or conversions of all of its subordinated debt and preferred stock outstanding as of June 30, 2020. The Tenth Amendment (the most recent amendment) extended the time to negotiate and settle certain terms of the restructuring and exit fees from September 30, 2020, which was established in the Ninth Amendment, to June 30, 2021, as further described below.

Completion of Financial Restructuring Transactions

On June 30, 2020, we completed a financial restructuring of approximately $19.7 million of our subordinated indebtedness and approximately $27.7 million of our convertible preferred stock (the “Restructuring”) pursuant to the terms of the Seventh Amendment and Ninth Amendment to the Senior Credit Agreement. In connection with the restructuring, we entered into the following agreements with the holders of our subordinated indebtedness and convertible preferred stock.

We entered into a Repurchase Agreement for Preferred Stock and Subordinated Notes (the “Repurchase Agreement”), dated as of June 30, 2020 with Ronald R. Smith (“Mr. Smith”), Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Madison Capital Funding LLC, Maurice R. Harrison IV, Peter Langlois, Vincent Lombardo and Shane Parr (collectively with Smith, Thrivent and Madison, the “SNI Group Members” pursuant to which the SNI Group Members agreed to allow us to repurchase and settle all of the 9.5% Convertible Subordinated Notes (the “9.5% Notes”), Series B Convertible Preferred Stock, no par value (“Series B Preferred Stock”), 8% Convertible Subordinated Notes (“8% Notes”), and Series C 8% Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock, no par value (“Series C Preferred Stock”), held by each of them as set forth below. All of the outstanding 9.5% Notes and all of the outstanding Series B Preferred Stock were held by SNI Group Members.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement, the holders of the 9.5% Notes agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $1.1 million in cash in consideration for the purchase by us of the entire $12.5 million aggregate principal amount of the 9.5% Notes held by them. This amount was paid to the SNI Group Members on June 30, 2020.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement the holders of the Series B Preferred Stock agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $2.9 million in cash in consideration for the purchase by us of all 5,565,843 outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock held by them. This amount was paid to the SNI Group Members on June 30, 2020.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement, one of the SNI Group members also agreed to accept an aggregate amount of $520 thousand in cash in consideration for the purchase by us of the $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of 8% Notes held by him. Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement this SNI Group member also agreed to accept an aggregate amount equal to approximately $37 thousand in cash in consideration for the purchase by us of the 71,820 shares of Series C Preferred Stock held by him. These amounts were paid to him on June 30, 2020.

On June 30, 2020, the related party holders of the remaining $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 8% Notes converted such 8% Notes into an aggregate of 1,000,000 shares of Series C Preferred Stock which were immediately and simultaneously converted into 1,000,000 shares of common stock at the $1.00 per share conversion price stated in the 8% Notes and in the Series C Preferred Stock. These holders also converted an aggregate of 93,246 additional shares of Series C Preferred Stock issued or issuable to them into a total of 93,246 shares of common stock at the $1.00 per share conversion price stated in the Series C Preferred Stock. The issuance of the 1,093,246 shares of common stock to these former holders of 8% Notes and Series C Preferred Stock was completed on June 30, 2020.

On June 30, 2020, we and Jax Legacy Investment 1, LLC (“Jax Legacy”), the sole holder of our 10% Convertible Subordinated Notes (the “10% Notes”), entered into a Note Conversion Agreement whereby Jax Legacy agreed to immediately convert the approximately $4.2 million aggregate principal amount of 10% Notes held by it into 717,839 shares of common stock at the $5.83 per share conversion rate stated in the 10% Notes. The conversion of the 10% Notes was consummated on June 30, 2020 and the Company issued 717,839 shares of common stock to Jax Legacy on that date.

On June 30, 2020, we and Enoch S. Timothy and Dorothy Timothy (collectively, “Timothy”) entered into a Note Settlement Agreement pursuant to which Timothy agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $89,000 in cash in consideration for the purchase by us of the $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of the Subordinated Promissory Note dated January 20, 2017. This amount was paid to Timothy on June 30, 2020.

In connection with the Repurchase Agreement, we and the SNI Group Members entered into a Registration Rights Agreement dated as of June 30, 2020 (the “Registration Rights Agreement”). Pursuant to the terms of the Registration Rights Agreement, we agreed to file a registration statement with respect to the resale of shares of common stock currently owned by the SNI Group members that are “Registrable Securities” (as defined in the Registration Rights Agreement). In addition, we agreed that we shall, on one occasion, on or after September 30, 2020 and upon the written request of the holders of 51% or more of the Registrable Securities, file a registration statement with respect to the Registrable Securities held by such holders. The demanding holders may require, in connection with the second registration, that such demand registration take the form of an underwritten public offering of such Registrable Securities. The Registration Rights Agreement also provides that for a period of three years after the closing date of the Restructuring, the holders of Registrable Securities shall have piggyback registration rights with respect to all registration statements filed by the Company (other than those on Form S-4 or Form S-8).

Obligation to Pay Exit and Restructuring Fees Pursuant to Senior Credit Agreement

Pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement, as amended, we are obligated to pay a total of approximately $5.0 million in Exit and Restructuring Fees (the “Exit and Restructuring Fees”) in cash or in shares of our common stock, as determined in the sole discretion of MGG, on or prior to June 30, 2021. We have been informally advised by MGG that it intends to seek payment of these fees in shares of common stock. Pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement, the shares of common stock to be issued shall be valued at $1.00 per share which would result in the issuance of 4,978,197 shares of common stock on or prior to June 30, 2021. We expect that these shares of common stock (if MGG elects to receive common stock) will be issued pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act and the refore MGG’s re sale of such common stock will be restricted absent an effective registration statement or an exemption from registration pursuant to the Securities Act. Pursuant to our agreement with MGG, we are required to file a registration statement to register the resale of these shares.

Entry into a Commitment Letter with CIT

On March 22, 2021, we signed a commitment letter (the “Commitment Letter”) for a $20 million asset-based senior secured revolving credit facility (the “CIT Facility”) with CIT Bank, N.A. (“CIT”), who will also serve as administrative and collateral agent and sole lead arranger. The CIT Facility will be collateralized by 100% of our assets and those of our subsidiaries who will act as co-borrowers and guarantors. The CIT Facility will have a term that matures at the earlier of 180 days prior to the maturity date of the existing term loan or any indebtedness that refinances such term loan and the fifth anniversary of the closing date. Once closed, the CIT Facility will replace our current asset-based lending credit facility.

Under the CIT Facility, advances will be subject to a borrowing base formula that will be computed based on 85% of our eligible accounts receivable and subsidiaries in general and as further defined in the loan documents, and subject to certain other criteria, conditions and applicable reserves, including any additional eligibility requirements as determined by the administrative agent. The CIT Facility will be subject to usual and customary covenants and events of default for credit facilities of this type. The interest rate, at our election, will be based on either the Base Rate, as defined, plus the applicable margin; or, the London Interbank Offering Rate (“LIBOR,” or any successor thereto) for the applicable interest period, subject to a 1% floor, plus the applicable margin. Based upon our anticipated amount of borrowings under the CIT Facility, the estimated effective interest rate is expected to be in the range of approximately 4% to approximately 5.25%, based on the three months LIBOR rate as of March 26, 2021. This compares to an approximately 11% interest rate currently paid on the Company’s present ABL. In addition to interest costs on advances outstanding, the CIT Facility will provide for an unused line fee ranging from 0.375% to 0.50% depending on the amount of undrawn credit, original issue discount and certain fees for diligence, implementation and administration.

Closing of the CIT Facility is subject to the completion of a satisfactory field examination and due diligence, compliance with the required closing conditions, execution of an acceptable inter-creditor agreement if term debt remains outstanding and finalization of definitive documentation.

Our Corporate Information

We were incorporated in the State of Illinois in 1962 and are the successor to employment offices doing business since 1893. Our principal executive offices are located at 7751 Belfort Parkway, Suite 150, Jacksonville, Florida 32256, and our telephone number at that location is (630) 954-0400. Our Internet website address is www.GEEgroup.com. The inclusion of our website address in this prospectus does not include or incorporate by reference into this prospectus or the registration statement to which it forms a part any information on, or accessible through, our website.

Summary of Risk Factors

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should consider before investing in our company. You should carefully consider the risks described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in this prospectus beginning on page 18, before making a decision to invest in our common stock. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely be materially adversely affected. These risks, include, but are not limited to, the following:

Implications of Being a Smaller Reporting Company

We are a “smaller reporting company” and accordingly may provide less public disclosure than larger public companies, including the inclusion of only two years of audited consolidated financial statements and only two years of management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations disclosure. As a result, the information that we provide to our shareholders may be different than you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests.

THE OFFERING

¹  The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering is based on 17,667,123 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 26, 2021, and includes (i) 31,250,000 common shares being offered by us in this offering, and (ii) 4,978,197 common shares which may be issued to MGG pursuant to our Senior Credit Agreement in settlement of certain accrued and unpaid fees on or before June 30, 2021, and excludes:

Unless otherwise stated, all information in this prospectus assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option to purchase additional shares of common stock.

SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

The following table presents our summary historical financial data for the periods presented and should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus. The statements of operations data for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary unaudited consolidated statements of operations data for the three months ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 have been derived from our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. You also should read this data together with the information under the captions “Capitalization” and “Dilution.” Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results or any other period. The summary financial data included in this section are not intended to replace the financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

The share amounts used to calculate pro forma net income per common share, basic and diluted, set forth in the table assume no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option to purchase additional shares of common stock, and also exclude:

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the Company’s consolidated financial statements presented on a GAAP basis, management uses adjusted EBITDA, which is a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure to provide an additional measure of operating performance. We believe that adjusted EBITDA provides an additional measure for purposes of evaluating the Company’s performance period over period, analyzing the underlying operating trends in the Company’s business, establishing operational goals, and for internal planning, including assessing the Company’s ability to meet debt service and debt financial covenants, make capital expenditures and provide for working capital needs. We define adjusted EBITDA as net income or net loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization plus or minus non-cash stock options and stock-based compensation expenses, acquisition, integration and restructuring costs, certain other non-cash or non-recurring charges, and other gains and losses.

The following table presents the Company’s reconciliation of consolidated net income (loss) to adjusted EBITDA.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA to GAAP Net Loss

We believe investors also use EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA as supplemental measures to monitor the Company’s performance, including for comparative purposes with other entities and valuation purposes.  Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure, such as adjusted EBITDA, is a numerical measure of a company’s performance, financial position or cash flow that either excludes or includes amounts that are not normally excluded or included, accordingly, in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA is not a term defined by GAAP and, as a result, the Company’s measure of adjusted EBITDA might not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA, therefore, should be considered in addition to, and not as superior to or as a substitute for, net income or net loss in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP included in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed for the respective fiscal periods with the SEC.

RISK FACTORS

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before deciding whether to invest in our securities, you should consider carefully the risks described below, together with other information in this prospectus and in any free writing prospectus that we have authorized for use in connection with this offering. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flow could be seriously harmed as a result of these risks. This could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline, resulting in a loss of all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently see as immaterial, may also harm our business. Please also read carefully the section below entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Condition

We have experienced losses from operations and may not be profitable in the future.

We incurred consolidated net losses of approximately ($14.3) million and approximately ($17.8) million for the years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and reported consolidated net losses of approximately ($315) thousand for the three months ended December 31, 2020, as compared with approximately ($3.6) million for three months ended December 31, 2019, respectively. Among the consequences of the net losses incurred, the Company has been required to negotiate and obtain concessions from its lenders, including amendments and waivers for missed covenants, under its Senior Credit Agreement. Other possible consequences of recurring net losses include, but are not limited to, negative cash flows, asset impairments, defaults under the Company’s debt agreements, and possibly, the inability of the Company to continue operating as a going concern. Management has taken definitive actions to improve operations, reduce costs and improve operating profitability, and position the Company for future growth. The Company also is actively seeking replacement financing with a view towards reducing its borrowing costs and improving its net cash flow and overall financial profile. However, there are no assurances that the Company will be able to generate sufficient revenue to meet its operating expenditures or operate profitably in the future.

The terms of our Senior Credit Agreement place restrictions on our operating and financial flexibility, and failure to comply with covenants or to satisfy certain conditions of the agreement may result in acceleration of our repayment obligations, which could significantly harm our liquidity, financial condition, operating results, business and prospects and cause the price of our securities to decline. The covenants contained in our Senior Credit Agreement also include the requirement that we maintain specific financial ratios. If we cannot comply with these covenants, we also may be in default under the Senior Credit Agreement.

We and our subsidiaries are parties to the Senior Credit Agreement with certain investment funds managed by MGG. Initial funds were distributed on April 3, 2017 to repay existing indebtedness, pay fees and expenses relating to the Credit Agreement, and to pay a portion of the purchase price for the acquisition of the SNI Companies. Under the terms of the Senior Credit Agreement, we may borrow up to approximately $73.8 million consisting of a term loan in the principal amount of approximately $48.8 million and revolving loans in a maximum amount up to the lesser of (i) $25.0 million or (ii) an amount determined pursuant to a borrowing base that is calculated based on the outstanding amount of our eligible accounts receivable, as described in the Credit Agreement. The loans under the Credit Agreement mature on June 30, 2023. As of December 31, 2020, a total of approximately $60.0 million was outstanding under the Senior Credit Agreement, which includes approximately $5.0 million in accrued fees payable to the lenders.

The Senior Credit Agreement contains restrictions and limitations on our ability to engage in activities and transactions that may be in our long-term best interests. The affirmative and negative covenants contained in the Credit Agreement that may adversely affect our ability to operate our business include covenants that limit and restrict, among other things, our ability to incur additional indebtedness, transfer or sell certain assets, issue stock of subsidiaries, pay dividends on, repurchase or make distributions with respect to our capital stock or make other restricted payments, incur or permit liens or other encumbrances on assets, make certain investments, loans and advances, acquire other businesses, merge, consolidate, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets, enter into certain transactions with our affiliates and amend certain agreements.

The Credit Agreement also contains a fixed charge coverage ratio covenant, a senior leverage ratio covenant and a minimum EBITDA covenant. Events beyond our control could affect our ability to meet these and other covenants under the Senior Credit Agreement. The Senior Credit Agreement also contains customary events of default, including, among others, payment default, bankruptcy events, cross-default, breaches of covenants and representations and warranties, change of control and judgment defaults.

A breach of any of these covenants could result in default under our Credit Agreement, which could prompt the lenders to declare all amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit. In addition, a breach of the Credit Agreement would cause a cross-default of certain other indebtedness. If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. If the lenders under the Credit Agreement accelerate the repayment of borrowings, we cannot ensure that we will have sufficient assets and funds to repay the borrowings under the Credit Agreement and our other indebtedness. An acceleration of our outstanding indebtedness could have serious consequences to our financial condition, operating results, and business, and could cause us to become insolvent or enter bankruptcy proceedings.

Since the date of the Credit Agreement, we have sought and been granted waivers and amendments with respect to certain provisions of the Credit Agreement on ten occasions. There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to comply with the covenants set forth in the Credit Agreement in the future or, that any additional waivers with respect to these covenants would be granted by the lenders.

This indebtedness has important consequences for us and our shareholders, including the following:

Recent global socioeconomic trends, including the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and trends in the financial markets, have and may continue to materially adversely affect our business, liquidity and financial results.

Recent global socioeconomic conditions, including the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and disruption of financial markets, have and could continue to materially adversely affect our business and results of operations, including shutdowns, closures and disrupting our customers’ businesses, disrupting our access to qualified permanent placement and temporary placement candidates for our clients, and also, limiting our access to credit or equity capital and our ability to refinance debt. Although we believe we ultimately will be able to seek and obtain capital or financing, when necessary, there is no assurance that credit institutions or other creditors or investors will be able or willing to loan us or invest the necessary capital, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. In addition, continuation or worsening of negative socioeconomic conditions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and their negative effects on general market conditions in the United States economic sectors important to our businesses may also be expected to adversely affect our customers’ level of spending and ability to make timely payments to us for our services, which could require us to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts, negatively impact our days sales outstanding and adversely affect our results of operations and liquidity.

Our operations and liquidity having been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, were able to obtain PPP Loans. The nine promissory notes have an aggregate face amount of approximately $19.9 million, bear interest at 1% per annum and are unsecured. The PPP Loans and related accrued interest are eligible for forgiveness by the SBA, in whole or in part, based upon validation of the need for and the usage of the proceeds for costs and expenses determined by the SBA to be allowable and eligible. At the time the Company and its subsidiaries obtained their PPP Loans, allowable costs and expenses, as defined by the SBA, broadly included payroll and certain payroll related expenses, lease costs, utilities, and interest on business mortgage loans. Since then, PPP eligible expenses also now include certain operations expenditures, property damage costs, workers’ protection expenses, and supplier costs. Allowable costs and expenses that are eligible for forgiveness include those incurred during the covered periods, as defined, after certain specified limitations and reductions based on changes in compensation and headcount levels during the covered periods, as defined.

We believe that we qualify for and are in the process of applying for 100% forgiveness of our outstanding PPP Loans and related accrued interest. The decision to forgive our PPP Loans is ultimately made by the SBA considering a number of factors in addition to use of the proceeds for allowable and eligible costs and expenses, including the SBA’s views regarding the need and necessity for the loans. Therefore, there can be no assurance that such forgiveness will be granted, in whole or in part. As the PPP Loans, in the aggregate, have exceeded the $2 million audit threshold established by the SBA, we will be subject to audit by the SBA, which could result in the diversion of management’s time and attention. If we were to be audited or reviewed and receive an adverse determination or finding in such audit or review, we could be required to return the full amount of the PPP Loans.

During February 2021, the Company’s subsidiary, Scribe Solutions, Inc., was notified by the SBA that its total outstanding PPP Loan and accrued interest in the amount of $279,196 were forgiven. We are in the process of submitting forgiveness applications for our other PPP Loans and accrued interest. If we are unable to achieve forgiveness of all or a portion of their PPP Loans from the SBA, we will be required to repay the loans on an installment basis over twenty-four (24) months beginning approximately ten (10) months after the end of their respective covered periods and/or be subject to additional penalties, which could also result in adverse publicity and damage to our reputation. If we are unable to repay the portions of our PPP Loans that are not forgiven from available liquidity or operating cash flow, we may be required to raise additional equity or debt capital to repay the PPP Loans. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we are unable to generate or borrow sufficient cash to make payments on our indebtedness, including any unforgiven portion of the PPP Loans, our financial condition would be materially harmed, our business could fail and our shareholders may lose all of their investment.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations will depend on our financial and operating performance, which will be affected by economic, financial, competitive, business, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. If we are unable to meet our debt obligations or fund our other liquidity needs, we may need to restructure or refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness on or before maturity, raise additional equity or sell certain of our assets. We cannot assure you that we will be able to restructure or refinance any of our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms, if at all, which could cause us to default on our debt obligations and impair our liquidity. Any refinancing of our indebtedness could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations.

We are currently seeking to repay and/or refinance our outstanding indebtedness in conjunction with this equity offering. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully refinance our indebtedness on terms that are favorable to us or at all or raise sufficient equity to repay outstanding indebtedness.

We have material intangible assets, including goodwill, customer lists, trademarks and tradenames. These assets are subject to impairment risks, which could result in future material impairment charges against our income and negatively impacting the future operating results and our financial results and position.

We are required to evaluate our goodwill annually or when one or more triggering events or circumstances indicate that our assets might be impaired. The other long-lived assets, including definite-lived intangible assets, have to be tested for impairment only when triggering events occur or circumstances indicate that assets might be impaired. As a result, we have recognized significant impairments of our goodwill in fiscal 2020 and 2019. In testing for impairments, management applies one or more valuation techniques to estimate the fair values of the reporting units, individual assets or groups of individual assets, as required under the circumstances. These valuation techniques rely on assumptions and other factors, such as the estimated future cash flows, the discount rates used to determine the present value of associated cash flows, and the market comparable assumptions. Changes to input assumptions and other factors used or considered in the analysis could result in materially different evaluations of impairment.

The valuation techniques utilized by management for impairment testing, including estimated future cash flows, fundamentally include the inherent underlying assumption that the economy, the markets served by the Company, and the Company itself, will continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic in fiscal 2021, 2022 and beyond. In the event the assumptions relied upon by management are not achieved, including assumed future growth rates, as a result of the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, future impairments of goodwill or other long-lived assets could be recorded and such amounts could be material to the consolidated financial statements. A reduction in the projected long-term operating performance of one or both of the Company’s reporting units or other long-lived assets, future market declines, changes in discount rates or other conditions also could result in material impairments in the future. Thus, there can be no assurance that the Company’s goodwill or other long-lived assets will not become impaired in the future.

We have significant working capital needs and if we are unable to satisfy those needs from cash generated from our operations or borrowings under our debt instruments, we may not be able to continue our operations.

We require significant amounts of working capital to operate our business. We often have high receivables from our customers, and as a staffing company, we are prone to cash flow imbalances because we have to fund payroll payments to temporary workers before receiving payments from clients for our services. Cash flow imbalances also occur because we must pay temporary workers even when we have not been paid by our customers. If we experience a significant and sustained drop in operating profits, or if there are unanticipated reductions in cash inflows or increases in cash outlays, we may be subject to cash shortfalls. If such a shortfall were to occur for even a brief period of time, it may have a significant adverse effect on our business. In particular, we use working capital to pay expenses relating to our temporary workers and to satisfy our workers’ compensation liabilities. As a result, we must maintain sufficient cash availability to pay temporary workers and fund related tax liabilities prior to receiving payment from customers.

In addition, our operating results tend to be unpredictable from quarter to quarter. Demand for our services is typically lower during traditional national vacation periods in the United States when customers and candidates are on vacation. No single quarter is predictive of results of future periods. Any extended period of time with low operating results or cash flow imbalances could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We derive working capital for our operations through cash generated by our operating activities and borrowings under our debt instruments. If our working capital needs increase in the future, we may be forced to seek additional sources of capital, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms. The amount we are entitled to borrow under our debt instruments is calculated monthly based on the aggregate value of certain eligible trade accounts receivable generated from our operations, which are affected by financial, business, economic and other factors, as well as by the daily timing of cash collections and cash outflows. The aggregate value of our eligible accounts receivable may not be adequate to allow for borrowings for other corporate purposes, such as capital expenditures or growth opportunities, which could reduce our ability to react to changes in the market or industry conditions.

Our revenue can vary because our customers can terminate their relationship with us at any time with limited or no penalty.

We focus on providing mid-level professionals and light industrial personnel on a temporary assignment-by-assignment basis, which customers can generally terminate at any time or reduce their level of use when compared to prior periods. To avoid large placement agency fees, large companies may use in-house personnel staff, current employee referrals, or human resources consulting companies to find and hire new personnel. Because placement agencies typically charges fees as a mark-up to the hourly pay rate or based on a percentage of the first year’s salary of a new worker, companies with many jobs to fill have a large financial incentive to avoid agencies.

Our business is also significantly affected by our customers’ hiring needs and their views of their future prospects. Our customers may, on very short notice, terminate, reduce or postpone their recruiting assignments with us and, therefore, affect demand for our services. As a result, a significant number of our customers can terminate their agreements with us at any time, making us particularly vulnerable to a significant decrease in revenue within a short period of time that could be difficult to quickly replace. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Most of our contracts do not obligate our customers to utilize a significant amount of our staffing services and may be cancelled on limited notice, so our revenue stream may be inconsistent and is not guaranteed.

Substantially all of our revenue is derived from multi-year contracts that are terminable for convenience of the customer. Under our multi-year agreements, we contract to provide customers with staffing services through work or service orders at the customers’ request. Under these agreements, our customers often have little or no obligation to request our staffing services. In addition, most of our contracts are cancellable on limited notice, even if we are not in default under the contract. We may hire employees permanently to meet anticipated demand for services under these agreements that may ultimately be delayed or cancelled. We could face a significant decline in revenues and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected if:

If we are unable to retain a broad group of existing customers, lose one or more significant customers, or fail to attract new customers, our results of operations could suffer.

Increasing the growth and profitability of our business is particularly dependent upon our ability to retain existing customers and capture additional customers. Our ability to do so is dependent upon our ability to provide high quality services and offer competitive prices. If we are unable to execute these tasks effectively, we may not be able to attract a significant number of new customers and our existing customer base could decrease, including the loss of a significant customer, either or all of which could have an adverse impact on our revenues.

Substantial alteration of our current business and revenue model could hurt short-term results.

Our present business and revenue model represents the current view of the optimal business and revenue structure, which is to derive revenues and achieve profitability in the shortest period. There can be no assurance that current models will not be altered significantly or replaced with an alternative model that is driven by motivations other than near-term revenues and/or profitability (for example, building market share before our competitors). Any such alteration or replacement of our current business and revenue model may ultimately result in the deferring of certain revenues in favor of potentially establishing larger market share. We cannot assure that any adjustment or change in the business and revenue model would prove to be successful whether adopted in response to industry changes or for other reasons.

We depend on our senior management team and the loss of one or more key employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could adversely affect our business.

Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our executive officers. We rely on our leadership team for research and development, marketing, sales, services, and general and administrative functions, and on mission-critical individual contributors. From time to time, our executive management team may change from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. We do not have employment agreements with our executive officers or other key personnel that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period; therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of one or more of our executive officers or key employees (including any limitation on the performance of their duties or short term or long term absences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic) could have a serious adverse effect on our business.

To execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for experienced software engineers and senior sales executives. If we are unable to attract such personnel in cities where we are located, we may need to hire in other locations, which may add to the complexity and costs of our business operations. We expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. Extended stay-at-home, business closure, and other restrictive orders may impact our ability to identify, hire, and train new personnel. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may attempt to assert that these employees or we have breached legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the stock awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived value of our stock awards declines, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, it could adversely affect our business and future growth prospects.

We depend on attracting, integrating, managing, and retaining qualified internal personnel.

Our success is substantially dependent upon our ability to attract, integrate, manage and retain personnel who possess the skills and experience necessary to fulfill our customers’ needs. Our ability to hire and retain qualified personnel could be impaired by any diminution of our reputation, decrease in compensation levels relative to our competitors or modifications to our total compensation philosophy or competitor hiring programs. If we cannot attract, hire and retain qualified personnel, our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer. Our future success also depends upon our ability to manage the performance of our personnel. Failure to successfully manage the performance of our personnel could affect our profitability by causing operating inefficiencies that could increase operating expenses and reduce operating income.

We depend on our ability to attract and retain qualified temporary workers.

In addition to the members of our own team, our success is substantially dependent on our ability to recruit and retain qualified temporary workers who possess the skills and experience necessary to meet the staffing requirements of our customers. We are required to continually evaluate our base of available qualified personnel to keep pace with changing customer needs. Competition for individuals with proven professional skills is intense, and demand for these individuals is expected to remain strong for the foreseeable future. There can be no assurance that qualified personnel will continue to be available.

We operate in an intensely competitive and rapidly changing business environment, and there is a substantial risk that our services could become obsolete or uncompetitive.

The markets for our services are highly competitive. Our markets are characterized by pressures to provide high levels of service, incorporate new capabilities and technologies, accelerate job completion schedules and reduce prices. Furthermore, we face competition from a number of sources, including other executive search firms and professional search, staffing and consulting firms. Several of our competitors have greater financial and marketing resources than we do. New and existing competitors are aided by technology, and the market has low barriers to entry. Furthermore, Internet employment sites expand a company’s ability to find workers without the help of traditional agencies. Personnel agencies often work as intermediaries, helping employers accurately describe job openings and screen candidates. Increasing the use of sophisticated, automated job description and candidate screening tools could make many traditional functions of staffing companies obsolete. Specifically, the increased use of the internet may attract technology-oriented companies to the professional staffing industry. Free social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are also becoming a common way for recruiters and employees to connect without the assistance of a staffing company.

Our future success will depend largely upon our ability to anticipate and keep pace with those developments and advances. Current or future competitors could develop alternative capabilities and technologies that are more effective, easier to use or more economical than our services. In addition, we believe that, with continuing development and increased availability of IT, the industries in which we compete may attract new competitors. If our capabilities and technologies become obsolete or uncompetitive, our related sales and revenue would decrease. Due to competition, we may experience reduced margins on our services, loss of market share, and loss of customers. If we are not able to compete effectively with current or future competitors as a result of these and other factors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We may not be able to compete successfully with our existing and potential competitors.

Competition in the market for placement and staffing services is intense. We face competition from many larger, more established companies. In addition, other companies could seek to introduce competing services and increased competition could result in a decrease in the price charged by our competitors for their services and reduce demand for our products and services, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully with our existing or potential competitors, which may have substantially greater financial, technical, and marketing resources, longer operating histories, greater name recognition or more established relationships in the industry than we do. If any of these competitors provides competitive services to the marketplace in the future, we cannot be sure that we will have the resources or expertise to compete successfully.

We may not be able to manage expected growth and internal expansion.

Our inability to manage growth could hurt our results of operations. Expansion of our operations will be required to address anticipated growth of our customer base and market opportunities. Expansion will place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources. We will need to improve existing procedures and controls as well as implement new transaction processing, operational and financial systems, procedures and controls to expand, train and manage our employee base. Our failure to manage growth effectively could have a damaging effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our strategy of growing through acquisitions may be impeded by a lack of financial resources and impact our business in unexpected ways. We could be adversely affected by risks associated with acquisitions.

We intend to expand our business through acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies, services or products, subject to our business plans and management’s ability to identify, acquire and develop suitable acquisition or investment targets in both new and existing service categories. In certain circumstances, acceptable acquisition or investment targets might not be available. Acquisitions involve a number of risks, including, but not limited to:

In addition, if we incur indebtedness to finance an acquisition, it may reduce our capacity to borrow additional amounts and requiring us to dedicate a greater percentage of our cash flow from operations to payments on our debt, thereby reducing the cash resources available to us to fund capital expenditures, pursue other acquisitions or investments in new business initiatives and meet general corporate and working capital needs. This increased indebtedness may also limit our flexibility in planning for, and reacting to, changes in or challenges relating to our business and industry.

The use of our common stock or other securities (including those that might be convertible into or exchangeable or exercisable for our common stock) to finance any such acquisition may also result in dilution of our existing shareholders.

The potential risks associated with recent and future acquisitions could disrupt our ongoing business, result in the loss of key customers or personnel, increase expenses and otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may not be able to obtain the necessary capital or additional financing to achieve our strategic goals.

There is no guarantee that we will be able to obtain any additional financing that may be required to continue to expand our business. Our continued viability depends on our ability to raise capital. Changes in economic, regulatory or competitive conditions may lead to cost increases. Management may also determine that it is in our best interest to expand more rapidly than currently intended, to expand marketing activities, to develop new or enhance existing services or products, to respond to competitive pressures or to acquire complementary services, businesses or technologies. In any such case or other change of circumstance, additional financing will be necessary. If any additional financing is required, there can be no assurances that we will be able to obtain such additional financing on terms acceptable to us and at times required by us, if at all. In such event, we may be required to materially alter our business plan or curtail all or a part of our expansion plans.

Changes in government regulation could limit our growth or result in additional costs of doing business.

We are subject to the same federal, state, and local laws as other companies conducting placement and staffing services, which are extensive. The adoption or modification of laws that affect the placement and staffing industry, including but not limited to, Federal and state laws and regulations pertaining to labor and minimum wages, workplace standards and safety, workers’ compensation laws, independent contractor status, the Family Medical Leave Act, Affordable Care Act, potential increases in the federal minimum wage laws and others could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition by increasing our costs and administrative burdens.

We are dependent upon technology services, and if we experience damage, service interruptions or failures in our computer and telecommunications systems, our existing customer relationships and our ability to attract new customers may be adversely affected.

Our business could be interrupted by damage to or disruption of our computer and telecommunications equipment and software systems, and we may lose data. Our customers’ businesses may be adversely affected by any system or equipment failure we experience. As a result of any of the foregoing, our relationships with our customers may be impaired, we may lose customers, our ability to attract new customers may be adversely affected and we could be exposed to contractual liability. Precautions in place to protect us from, or minimize the effect of, such events may not be adequate. If an interruption by damage to or disruption of our computer and telecommunications equipment and software systems occurs, we could be liable and the market perception of our services could be harmed.

We could be harmed by improper disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential company, employee, associate or customer data, including personal data.

In connection with the operation of our business, we store, process and transmit a large amount of data, including personnel and payment information, about our employees, customers, associates and candidates, a portion of which is confidential and/or personally sensitive. In doing so, we rely on our own technology and systems, and those of third-party vendors we use for a variety of processes. We and our third-party vendors have established policies and procedures to help protect the security and privacy of this information. Unauthorized disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential data may occur through a variety of methods. These include, but are not limited to, systems failure, employee negligence, fraud or misappropriation, or unauthorized access to or through our information systems, whether by our employees or third parties, including a cyberattack by computer programmers, hackers, members of organized crime and/or state-sponsored organizations, who may develop and deploy viruses, worms or other malicious software programs.

Such disclosure, loss or breach could harm our reputation and subject us to government sanctions and liability under our contracts and laws that protect sensitive or personal data and confidential information, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenues. It is possible that security controls over sensitive or confidential data and other practices we and our third-party vendors follow may not prevent the improper access to, disclosure of, or loss of such information. Further, data privacy is subject to frequently changing rules and regulations, which sometimes conflict among the various jurisdictions in which we provide services. Any failure or perceived failure to successfully manage the collection, use, disclosure, or security of personal information or other privacy related matters, or any failure to comply with changing regulatory requirements in this area, could result in legal liability or impairment to our reputation in the marketplace.

Our ability to utilize our net operating carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

As of December 31, 2020, we had accumulated federal and state net operating loss (“NOL”) carryforwards of approximately $20.6 million and $15.0 million, respectively. The federal and state NOL carryforwards each will begin to expire in 2029 for federal and 2021 for state. Certain of the federal losses have no expiration. Federal and state tax laws impose restrictions on the utilization of NOL and tax credit carryforwards in the event of an “ownership change” as defined by section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (“Section 382”). Generally, an ownership change occurs if the percentage of the value of the stock that is owned by one or more direct or indirect “five percent shareholders” increases by more than 50% over their lowest ownership percentage at any time during the applicable testing period (typically, three years).

Under Section 382, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. We have not completed a study to assess whether an “ownership change” has occurred or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since we became a “loss corporation” as defined in Section 382. Future changes in our stock ownership, which may be outside of our control, may trigger an “ownership change”. In addition, future equity offerings or acquisitions that have equity as a component of the purchase price could result in an “ownership change.” If an “ownership change” has occurred or does occur in the future, utilization of the NOL carryforwards or other tax attributes may be limited, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we have acquired or may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs, even if we were to achieve profitability.

We may be exposed to employment-related claims and losses, including class action lawsuits, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We employ people internally and in the workplaces of other businesses. Many of these individuals have access to client information systems and confidential information. The risks of these activities include possible claims relating to:

We may incur fines and other losses or negative publicity with respect to these problems and claims. Such claims may result in negative publicity, injunctive relief, criminal investigations and/or charges, payment by us of monetary damages or fines, or other material adverse effects on our business. In addition, these claims may give rise to litigation, which could be time-consuming and expensive. New employment and labor laws and regulations may be proposed or adopted that may increase the potential exposure of employers to employment-related claims and litigation. There can be no assurance that the corporate policies we have in place to help reduce our exposure to these risks will be effective or that we will not experience losses as a result of these risks. There can also be no assurance that the insurance policies we have purchased to insure against certain risks will be adequate or that insurance coverage will remain available on reasonable terms or be sufficient in amount or scope of coverage.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock and this Offering

Non-GAAP Financial Measures presented in this prospectus are not intended to replace our financial statements, included elsewhere in this prospectus.

In addition to financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP, we monitor other non-GAAP financial measures that we use to manage our business, to make planning decisions, to allocate resources and to use as performance measures in our executive compensation plan. These key financial measures provide an additional view of our operational performance over the long-term and provide information that we use to maintain and grow our business.

The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is used to enhance the understanding of certain aspects of our financial performance. It is not meant to be considered in isolation from, superior to, or as a substitute for the directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP , which are included elsewhere in this prospectus.

The market price of shares of our common stock has been volatile, which could cause the value of your investment to decline. A more active, liquid trading market for our common stock may not develop, and the price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly.

The market price of our common stock has been highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. Securities markets worldwide experience significant price and volume fluctuations. During the 12-month period ended March 26, 2021, our common stock traded as high as $2.17 per share and as low as $0.17 per share. The securities markets have experienced significant volatility as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Market volatility, as well as general economic, market, or political conditions, could reduce the market price of shares of our common stock regardless of our operating performance.

Although our common stock is listed on the NYSE American, we cannot assure you that an active public market will develop for our common stock. There has been relatively limited trading volume in the market for our common stock, and a more active, liquid public trading market may not develop or may not be sustained. Limited liquidity in the trading market for our common stock may adversely affect a shareholder’s ability to sell its shares of common stock at the time it wishes to sell them or at a price that it considers acceptable. If a more active, liquid public trading market does not develop, we may be limited in our ability to raise capital by selling shares of common stock and our ability to acquire other companies or assets by using shares of our common stock as consideration. In addition, if there is a thin trading market or “float” for our stock, the market price for our common stock may fluctuate significantly more than the stock market as a whole. Without a large enough float, our common stock would be less liquid than the stock of companies with broader public ownership and, as a result, the trading prices of our common stock may be more volatile. Furthermore, the stock market is subject to significant price and volume fluctuations, and the price of our common stock could fluctuate widely in response to several factors, including:

In response, the market price of shares of our common stock could decrease significantly. You may be unable to resell your shares of common stock at or above the public offering price.

Following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

Our common stock could be delisted from the NYSE American if we do not meet its continued listing requirements.

The NYSE American has established certain standards for the continued listing of a security on the NYSE American. There can be no assurance that we will be able to meet these standards in the future to maintain the listing of our common stock on the NYSE American. Factors that could have an impact on our ability to maintain the listing of our coon stock on NYSE American include the status of the market for our common stock at the time, our reported results of operations in future periods, and general economic, market and industry conditions.

If we are delisted from the NYSE American, our common stock may be eligible for trading on an over-the-counter market. In the event that we are not able to obtain a listing on another stock exchange or quotation service for our common stock, it may be extremely difficult or impossible for shareholders to sell their common stock. Moreover, if we are delisted from the NYSE American, but obtain a substitute listing for our common stock, it will likely be on a market with less liquidity, and therefore experience potentially more price volatility than experienced on the NYSE American. Shareholders may not be able to sell their common stock on any such substitute. market in the quantities, at the times, or at the prices that could potentially be available on a more liquid trading market. As a result of these factors, if our common stock is delisted from Nasdaq, the price of our common stock is likely to decline. A delisting of our common stock from the NYSE American could also adversely affect our ability to obtain financing for our operations and/or result in a loss of confidence by investors, or employees.

We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock; as a result, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell your common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

We intend to retain all future earnings for use in the development of our business and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the near future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws. It will depend on a number of factors, including our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions, general business conditions, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends is restricted by the terms of our debt financing arrangements, and any future debt financing arrangement likely will contain terms restricting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our common stock unless you sell your common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

You will experience immediate and substantial dilution if you purchase securities in this offering.

As of December 31, 2020, our consolidated net tangible book value was approximately $(53.9) million, or $(3.05) per share of our common stock. Since the assumed public offering price per share of our common stock being offered in this offering is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share of our common stock, you will suffer substantial dilution with respect to the net tangible book value of the common stock you purchase in this offering. Based on the assumed public offering price per share of common stock being sold in this offering of $1.60 (the last reported sale price of our common stock on NYSE American on March 26, 2021), and our net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2020, if you purchase shares of common stock in this offering, you will suffer immediate and substantial dilution of $(1.75) per share with respect to the net tangible book value of the common stock. See the section entitled “Dilution” for a more detailed discussion of the dilution you will incur if you purchase common stock in this offering.

There may be future sales of our securities or other dilution of our equity, which may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Even if this offering is successful, we may need to raise additional capital in the future to finance our operations, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development efforts or other operations.

We have had recurring losses from operations, negative operating cash flow and have an accumulated deficit. We must raise additional funds in order to continue financing our operations. If additional capital is not available to us when needed or on acceptable terms, we may not be able to continue to operate our business pursuant to our business plan or we may have to discontinue our operations entirely. Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or equity-backed securities may dilute our shareholders’ ownership percentages and could also result in a decrease in the market value of our equity securities. The terms of any securities issued by us in future capital transactions may be more favorable to new investors, and may include preferences, superior voting rights and the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities, which may have a further dilutive effect on the holders of any of our securities then outstanding.

If we are unable to secure additional funds when needed or on acceptable terms, we may be required to defer, reduce or eliminate significant planned expenditures, restructure, curtail or eliminate some or all of our operations, dispose of technology or assets, pursue an acquisition of our company by a third party at a price that may result in a loss on investment for our shareholders, file for bankruptcy or cease operations altogether. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, if we are unable to obtain additional funds on a timely basis, there will be substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern and increased risk of insolvency and up to a total loss of investment by our shareholders.

Provisions in our amended and restated articles of incorporation, as amended, our amended and restated by-laws, as amended and Illinois law might discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our common stock.

Provisions of our amended and restated articles of incorporation, as amended, our amended and restated by-laws, as amended, and Illinois law may have the effect of deterring unsolicited takeovers or delaying or preventing a change in control of our company or changes in our management, including transactions in which our shareholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over then current market prices. In addition, these provisions may limit the ability of shareholders to approve transactions that they may deem to be in their best interests. These provisions include:

The existence of the forgoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. They could also deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you could receive a premium for your common stock in an acquisition.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the proceeds we receive in this offering and might not apply the proceeds in ways that increase the value of your investment.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of our net proceeds from this offering, and you will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of these proceeds. Our management might not apply our net proceeds in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment. We expect to use the net proceeds from this offering , together with borrowings under the CIT Facility and/or available cash to repay approximately $60 million, in aggregate, of outstanding indebtedness under our Senior Credit Agreement and the remainder, if any, for general corporate purposes, including working capital and potential acquisitions. Our management might not be able to yield a significant return, if any, on any investment of these net proceeds. You will not have the opportunity to influence our decisions on how to use our net proceeds from this offering.

There can be no assurance that we will able to close the CIT Facility.

On March 22, 2021, we signed a commitment letter with respect to the CIT Facility. The CIT Facility will be collateralized by 100% of our assets and those of our subsidiaries who will act as co-borrowers and guarantors. Once closed, the CIT Facility will replace our current asset-based lending credit facility. Closing of the CIT Facility is subject to the completion of a satisfactory field examination and due diligence, compliance with the required closing conditions, execution of an acceptable inter-creditor agreement if term debt remains outstanding and finalization of definitive documentation. If we are unable to close the CIT Facility, we may no t be able t o replace and repay , in full , our indebtedness under the Senior Credit Agreement.

A possible “short squeeze” due to a sudden increase in demand of our common stock that largely exceeds supply may lead to further price volatility in our common shares.

Investors may purchase our common stock to hedge existing exposure in our common stock or to speculate on the price of our common stock. Speculation on the price of our common stock may involve long and short exposures. To the extent aggregate short exposure exceeds the number of shares of our common stock available for purchase in the open market, investors with short exposure may have to pay a premium to repurchase our common stock for delivery to lenders of our common stock. Those repurchases may in turn, dramatically increase the price of our common stock until investors with short exposure are able to purchase additional common shares to cover their short position. This is often referred to as a “short squeeze.” A short squeeze could lead to volatile price movements in our common stock that are not directly correlated to the performance or prospects of our company and once investors purchase the shares of common stock necessary to cover their short position the price of our common stock may decline.

General Company-Related Risks

The requirements of being a public company may strain our financial and human resources and distract management.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). These requirements are extensive. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting.

We incur significant costs associated with our public company reporting requirements and costs associated with applicable corporate governance requirements. These applicable rules and regulations significantly increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time consuming and costly than privately owned companies that are not SEC registrants. This also may divert management’s attention from other business concerns, which must be balanced so as not to cause material adverse effects on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We also believe compliance risks associated with these rules and regulations tend to make it more difficult and expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance and could result in our need to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our Board of Directors or as executive officers. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

Additionally, shareholder activism, the current political environment, and the current high level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have increased our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly.

We may be unable to implement and maintain appropriate internal controls over financial reporting. If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results and current and potential shareholders may lose confidence in our financial reporting.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the SEC rules require that our management report annually on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and our disclosure controls and procedures. Among other things, our management must conduct an assessment of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

A “material weakness” is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. In the past, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting relating to the accounting for complex debt and equity instruments. While we believe that we have remediated this material weakness, we cannot assure you that additional material weaknesses will not be identified in the future.

Any failure to implement or maintain required new or improved controls, or any difficulties we encounter in their implementation, could result in additional material weaknesses, or could result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements. These misstatements could result in a restatement of our consolidated financial statements, cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations, reduce our ability to obtain financing or cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, leading to a decline in our stock price.

There are inherent limitations in all control systems, and misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

The ongoing internal control provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 require us to identify material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, which is a process to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer, does not expect that our internal controls and disclosure controls will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. In addition, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefit of controls must be relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, in our Company have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple errors or mistakes. Further, controls can be circumvented by individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more persons, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is also based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving our stated goals under all potential future conditions. Over time, a control may be inadequate because of changes in conditions, such as growth of the Company or increased transaction volume, or the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

In addition, discovery and disclosure of a material weakness, could have a material adverse impact on our consolidated financial statements. Such an occurrence could discourage certain customers or suppliers from doing business with us, cause downgrades in our future debt ratings leading to higher borrowing costs and affect how our stock trades. This could, in turn, negatively affect our ability to access public debt or equity markets for capital.

Our operations may be affected by domestic and global economic fluctuations.

Customers’ demand for our services may fluctuate widely with changes in economic conditions in the markets in which we operate. Those conditions include slower employment growth or reductions in employment, which directly impact our service offerings. As a staffing company, our revenue depends on the number of jobs we fill, which in turn depends on economic growth. During economic slowdowns, many customer companies stop hiring altogether. For example, in prior economic downturns, many employers in our operating regions reduced their overall workforce to reflect the slowing demand for their products and services. We may face lower demand and increased pricing pressures during these periods, which this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Interruption of our business could result from increased security measures in response to terrorism.

The continued threat of terrorism within the United States and the ongoing military action and heightened security measures in response to such threat has and may cause significant disruption to commerce. The U.S. economy in general is being adversely affected by terrorist activities and potential activities. Any economic downturn could adversely impact our results of operations, impair our ability to raise capital or otherwise adversely affect our ability to grow the business. It is impossible to predict how this may affect our business or the economy in the U.S. and in the world. In the event of further threats or acts of terrorism, our business and operations may be severely and adversely affected.

Our business may be impacted by political events, war, public health issues, inclement weather, natural disasters and other business interruptions.

War, geopolitical uncertainties, public health issues (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) and other business interruptions have caused and could cause damage or disruption to commerce and the economy, and thus could have a material adverse effect on us and our customers. Our business operations are subject to interruption by, among others, inclement weather, natural disasters, whether as a result of climate change or otherwise, fire, power shortages, nuclear power plant accidents and other industrial accidents, terrorist attacks and other hostile acts, labor disputes, public health issues and other events beyond our control. Such events could decrease demand for our services.

Our compliance with complicated regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure has resulted in additional expenses.

We are faced with expensive, complicated and evolving disclosure, governance and compliance laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure. In addition, as a staffing company, we are regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and often by state authorities. New or changing laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing compliance work.

Our failure to comply with all laws, rules and regulations applicable to U.S. public companies could subject us or our management to regulatory scrutiny or sanction, which could harm our reputation and stock price. Our efforts to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards are likely to continue to result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Some of the statements contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus or incorporated by reference into this prospectus contain “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. From time to time, we also provide forward-looking statements in other materials we release to the public, as well as oral forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our “expectations,” “hopes,” “beliefs,” “intentions,” or “strategies” regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. We have tried, wherever possible, to identify such statements by using words such as, but not limited to, “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “may,” “might,” “should,” “would,” “will,” “likely,” “will likely result,” “continue,” “could,” “future,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “target,” “forecast,” “goal,” “observe,” “seek,” “strategy” and other words and terms of similar meaning, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward looking. The forward-looking statements contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance.

Forward-looking statements are not historical factors and should not be read as a guarantee or assurance of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made or management’s good faith beliefs, expectations and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include:

There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, or assumptions, many of which are beyond our control, that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus will in fact transpire or prove to be accurate. Readers are cautioned to consider the specific risk factors described or incorporated by reference herein and not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained or incorporated by reference herein, which speak only as of the date hereof.

We undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. You are advised, however, to consider any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and our other filings with the SEC. Also note that we provide a cautionary discussion of risks and uncertainties relevant to our business under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. We note these factors for investors as permitted by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should understand it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors.

USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from this offering of approximately $45,495,000, based on an assumed public offering price of $1.60 per share, the last reported sale price of our common stock on the NYSE American on March 26, 2021, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. If the underwriters exercise their option in full to purchase additional shares of common stock, we estimate that we will receive an additional $6,937,500 in net proceeds.

We intend to use the net proceeds of this offering, together with borrowings under the CIT Facility and/or available cash to settle approximately $59,999,000 in aggregate, of outstanding indebtedness under our Senior Credit Agreement . The revolving loans under the Senior Credit A greement have an interest rate of approximately 11% per annum and the T erm Loan under the Senior C redit A greement has an interest rate of approximately 16% per annum. Bo th the revolving loans and the Term Loan mature on June 30, 202 3. The remainder of the net proceeds of this offering, if any, will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital and potential acquisitions. Pending specific utilization of the net proceeds as described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds of the offering in short-term investment grade and U.S. government securities.

DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never paid cash dividends on any of our capital stock and currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business.

CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our capitalization as of December 31, 2020:

You should read this table in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. All amounts presented below in this “Capitalization” section, except share amounts, are in thousands of U.S. dollars.

¹ Actual consolidated debt as of December 31, 2020 includes: (i) PPP Loans in the aggregate amount of $20,068 and (ii) outstanding balances due under the Senior Credit Agreement in the aggregate principal amount, net of discount, of approximately $50,572, plus $4,978 in Exit and Restructuring Fees payable to lenders. Adjusted consolidated debt assumes pay-off and retirement of all outstanding principal amounts due under the Senior Credit Agreement in the aggregate amount of $55,021, using a combination of the net proceeds of this offering in the amount of $45,495 and write off of debt discount of $4,449, together with borrowings under the CIT Facility of $10,000 and/or available cash.  In addition, and as explained in footnote 3, below, it is anticipated that unpaid Exit and Restructuring Fees in the aggregate amount of $4,978 payable under the Senior Credit Agreement will be settled through the issuance of 4,978,197 shares of common stock.

² The number of shares of our common stock outstanding as set forth in the table above assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option to purchase additional shares of common stock, and excludes:

³ The adjusted additional paid in capital includes actual, plus (i) the net proceeds of this offering in the aggregate amount of $45,495, after deducting the 7.5% underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses of $755 payable by us, and (ii) issuance of 4,978,197 shares of common stock at $1.00 per share pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement.

⁴ The adjusted accumulated deficit includes actual, less a charge representing unamortized debt costs in the amount of $4,449 as of December 31, 2020, and estimated expenses associated with this offering of approximately $755.

DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be diluted immediately to the extent of the difference between the public offering price per share of our common stock and the adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after this offering.

Our historical consolidated net tangible book value (deficit) as of December 31, 2020 was $(53.9) million, or $(3.05) per share of our common stock. Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) is the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities. Historical net tangible book value per share represents historical net tangible book value (deficit) divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020.

After giving effect to our issuance and sale of shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed public offering price of $1.60 per share, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and offering expenses payable by us, and giving effect to (ii) issuance of 4,978,187 shares of common stock issuable pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement to MGG on or prior to June 30, 2021, and (ii) net new borrowings planned under the CIT Facility in the amount of approximately $10 million, the adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 would have been $(7.8) million, or $(0.15) per share. This represents an immediate increase in adjusted net tangible book value of $2.90 per share to our existing shareholders and an immediate dilution in adjusted net tangible book value of $(1.75) per share to investors purchasing shares of common stock in this offering at the assumed public offering price.

The following table illustrates this dilution ($ amounts in thousands, except for per share data):

The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering assumes no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option to purchase additional shares of common stock, and is based on shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and excludes:

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of our operations together with our consolidated audited and unaudited financial statements and the notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements our current expectations, whose actual outcomes involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those stated in or implied by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in the sections entitled "Risk Factors", "Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and elsewhere in this prospectus. Unless indicated otherwise, all amounts are in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data.

Overview

We specialize in the placement of IT, accounting, finance, office, and engineering professionals for direct hire and contract staffing for our clients, data entry assistants (medical scribes) who specialize in EMR services for emergency departments, specialty physician practices and clinics and provide temporary staffing services for our light industrial clients. The acquisitions of Agile Resources, Inc., a Georgia corporation (“Agile”), Access Data Consulting Corporation, a Colorado corporation (“Access”), Paladin Consulting Inc., a Texas corporation (“Paladin”) and SNI Companies, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“SNI”), expanded our geographical footprint within the placement and contract staffing verticals or end markets of IT, accounting, finance, office and engineering professionals.

We market our services using the trade names GEE Group (Columbus), General Employment Enterprises, Omni One, Ashley Ellis, Agile Resources, Scribe Solutions Inc., Access Data Consulting Corporation, Paladin Consulting Inc., SNI Companies (including Staffing Now, Accounting Now, and Certes), Triad Personnel Services and Triad Staffing. As of December 31, 2020, we operated three virtual locations and 27 branch office locations located in or near several major U.S. cities, including, but not limited to, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Miami, including one located in each of Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Virginia, three offices in Colorado, two offices each in Illinois and Massachusetts, four offices each in Texas, seven offices each in Ohio and Florida.

Management has implemented a strategy which includes organic and acquisition growth components. Our organic growth strategy includes seeking out and winning new client business, as well as expansion of existing client business and on-going cost reduction and productivity improvement efforts in operations. Management’s acquisition growth strategy currently includes identifying strategic acquisitions, to potentially be financed primarily through the issuance of equity and debt, which could improve the overall profitability and cash flows of the Company.

Our contract and placement services are principally provided under two operating divisions or segments: Professional Staffing Services and Industrial Staffing Services. We believe our current segments and array of businesses and brands within our segments complement one another and position us for future growth.

In approximately mid-March 2020, the Company began to experience the severe negative effects of the economic disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These have included abrupt reductions in demand for the Company’s primary sources of revenue, its temporary and direct hire placements, lost productivity due to business closings both by clients and at the Company’s own operating locations. These effects have been and continue to be felt across all businesses, with the most severe impacts being felt in the commercial (light industrial) and FA&O end markets within the Professional Staffing Services segment. In response to the crisis, in April 2020 we took a series of proactive actions including a 10% pay cut for full-time salaried employees, temporary furloughing and redeployment of some employees, reduction of discretionary expenses and projects, and obtaining funds under the CARES Act PPP. These actions allowed us to generate cost savings and time to assess the impacts of the COVID-19. As explained above, our businesses have recovered to a significant extent in our most recently completed fiscal quarters ended December 31, 2020 and September 30, 2020, as compared with the sequential prior quarters ended March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020, respectively. We expect a continuing, but perhaps, more gradual return to pre-COVID-19 levels for our business operations and customer demand for our services, however, the rate of such recovery may be delayed by continuing negative impacts of the COVID-19 on the U.S. economy and the markets and clients we serve.

The ultimate economic impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to assess or predict and new information about its severity and actions to contain or treat its impact continue to emerge. The COVID-19 pandemic already has caused significant disruptions in general commercial activity throughout the U.S. and global economies and caused financial market volatility and uncertainty. A continuation or worsening of market disruption and volatility could have an adverse effect on our ability to access capital and on the market price of our common stock, and we may not be able to successfully raise needed capital. If we are unsuccessful in raising capital in the future, we may need to reduce activities, curtail or cease operations.

Cares Act Payroll Protection Program Loans

On May 5, 2020 the Company and certain of our subsidiaries entered into nine (9) unsecured PPP Loans payable under the CARES Act PPP in order to obtain needed relief funds for allowable expenses under the CARES Act PPP and received net funds totaling approximately $19.9 million. We believe that we qualified and are eligible for forgiveness of all of our PPP Loans based on existing available guidance and have so far received full forgiveness from the SBA for all outstanding principal and interest under the PPP loan originally made to Scribe Solutions Inc. in the amount of approximately $279 thousand. We are in the process of applying for full forgiveness for our remaining outstanding PPP Loans and related interest. However, there can be no assurance that we will ultimately achieve forgiveness in whole or in part for our remaining outstanding PPP Loans and in that event, would have to repay the unforgiven loan balances in accordance with terms prescribed by the CARES Act.

Completion of Financial Restructuring Transaction

On June 30, 2020, we completed the Restructuring of approximately $19.7 million of our subordinated indebtedness and approximately $27.7 million of our convertible preferred stock pursuant to the terms of the Seventh Amendment and Ninth Amendment to the Senior Credit Agreement, by and among the Company, Scribe Solutions, Inc., Agile Resources, Inc. Access Data Consulting Corporation, Triad Personnel Services, Inc. Triad Logistics, Inc., Paladin Consulting, Inc., BMCH, INC., GEE Group Portfolio Inc., and SNI Companies, Inc., each a subsidiary of the Company listed as a “Guarantor” on the signature pages thereto each lender named therein and MGG. In connection with the Restructuring, we entered into the following agreements with the holders of its subordinated indebtedness and convertible preferred stock.

We entered into the Repurchase Agreement dated as of June 30, 2020 with the SNI Group Member pursuant to which the SNI Group Members agreed to allow the Company to repurchase and settle all of the 9.5% Notes, Series B Preferred Stock, 8% Notes, and Series C Preferred Stock, held by each of them as set forth below. All of the outstanding 9.5% Notes and all of the outstanding Series B Preferred Stock were held by SNI Group Members.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement, the holders of the 9.5% Notes agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $1.1 million in cash in consideration for the purchase by the Company of the entire $12.5 million aggregate principal amount of the 9.5% Notes held by them. This amount was paid to the SNI Group Members on June 30, 2020.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement the holders of the Series B Preferred Stock agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $2.9 million in cash in consideration for the purchase by the Company of all 5,565,843 outstanding shares of Series B Preferred Stock held by them. This amount was paid to the SNI Group Members on June 30, 2020.

Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement one of the SNI Group members agreed to accept an aggregate amount of $520 thousand in cash in consideration for the purchase by the Company of the $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of 8% Notes held by him. Pursuant to the Repurchase Agreement this SNI Group member also agreed to accept an aggregate amount equal to approximately $37 thousand in cash in consideration for the purchase by the Company of the 71,820 shares of Series C Preferred Stock held by him. These amounts were paid to him on June 30, 2020.

On June 30, 2020, the related party holders of the remaining $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of the Company’s 8% Notes converted such 8% Notes to an aggregate of 1,000,000 shares of Series C Preferred Stock which were immediately and simultaneously converted into 1,000,000 shares of common stock at the $1.00 per share conversion price stated in the 8% Notes and in the Series C Preferred Stock. These holders also converted an aggregate of 93,246 additional shares of Series C Preferred Stock issued or issuable to them into a total of 93,246 shares of common stock at the $1.00 per share conversion price stated in the Series C Preferred Stock. The issuance of the 1,093,246 shares of common stock to these former holders of 8% Notes and Series C Preferred Stock was completed on June 30, 2020.

On June 30, 2020, the Company and Jax Legacy, the sole holder of the Company’s 10% Notes, entered into a Note Conversion Agreement whereby Jax Legacy agreed to immediately convert the approximately $4.2 million aggregate principal amount of 10% Notes held by it into 717,839 shares of common stock at the $5.83 per share conversion rate stated in the 10% Notes. The conversion of the 10% Notes was consummated on June 30, 2020 and the Company issued 717,839 shares of common stock to Jax Legacy on that date.

On June 30, 2020, the Company and Timothy entered into a Note Settlement Agreement pursuant to which Timothy agreed to accept an aggregate amount of approximately $89 thousand in cash in consideration for the purchase by the Company of the $1.0 million aggregate principal amount of the Subordinated Promissory Note dated January 20, 2017. This amount was paid to Timothy on June 30, 2020.

In connection with the Repurchase Agreement, the Company and the SNI Group Members entered into a Registration Rights Agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the Registration Rights Agreement, the Company agreed to file a registration statement with respect to the resale of shares of common stock currently owned by the SNI Group members that are “Registrable Securities” (as defined in the Registration Rights Agreement). In addition, the Company agreed that it shall, on one occasion, on or after September 30, 2020 and upon the written request of the holders of 51% or more of the Registrable Securities, file a registration statement with respect to the Registrable Securities held by such holders. The demanding holders may require, in connection with the second registration, that the such demand registration take the form of an underwritten public offering of such Registrable Securities. The Registration Rights Agreement also provides that for a period of three years after the closing date of the Restructuring, the holders of Registrable Securities shall have piggyback registration rights with respect to all registration statements filed by the Company (other than those on Form S-4 or Form S-8).

Amendments to the Senior Credit Agreement

On April 28, 2020, May 5, 2020, June 30, 2020 and December 22, 2020, the Company entered into the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth amendments, respectively, to the Senior Credit Agreement. The Seventh Amendment contained several features beneficial to the Company, including an extension of the maturity for two years, lower cash interest, and postponement and reductions of quarterly principal payments. In exchange, the Company agreed to replace the lower cash interest with pay-in-kind (“PIK”) interest on the Term Loan portion of its senior debt, to pursue, negotiate, and execute conversions of all of the Company’s outstanding subordinated debt and preferred stock into shares of the Company’s common stock, and to incur restructuring and exit fees totaling approximately $5.0 million payable in cash or stock to the senior lenders at a future date. The Eighth and Ninth Amendments were entered into to enable and provide conforming changes to the Senior Credit Agreement so that the Company could obtain its CARES Act PPP Loans and complete the repurchases, settlements and/or conversions of all of its subordinated debt and preferred stock outstanding as of June 30, 2020. The tenth and most recent amendment extended to time to negotiate and settle certain terms of the restructuring and exit fees from September 30, 2020, which was established in the Ninth Amendment, to June 30, 2021.

Obligation to Pay Exit and Restructuring Fees Pursuant to Senior Credit Agreement

Pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement, as amended, we are obligated to pay a total of approximately $5.0 million in Exit and Restructuring Fees in cash or in shares of our common stock, as determined in the sole discretion of MGG, on or prior to June 30, 2021. The Company has been advised by MGG that it intends to seek payment of these fees in shares of common stock. Pursuant to the Senior Credit Agreement, the shares of common stock to be issued shall be valued at $1.00 per share which will result in the issuance of 4,978,187 shares of common stock. We expect that these shares of common stock (if MGG elects to receive common stock) will be issued pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act and therefore MGG’s resale of such common stock will be restricted absent an effective registration statement or an exemption from registration pursuant to the Securities Act. Pursuant to our agreement with MGG, we are required to file a registration statement to register the resale of these shares.

Management believes that the execution of the amendments to the Company’s Senior Credit Agreement and the CARES Act PPP Loans and related funding have been and continue to be essential in providing significant needed relief to the otherwise negative effects of the continuing Coronavirus Pandemic.

Entry into a Commitment Letter with CIT

On March 22, 2021, we signed the Commitment Letter for the CIT Facility with CIT, who will also serve as administrative and collateral agent and sole lead arranger. The CIT Facility will be collateralized by 100% of our assets and those of our subsidiaries who will act as co-borrowers and guarantors. The CIT Facility will have a term that matures at the earlier of 180 days prior to the maturity date of the existing term loan or any indebtedness that refinances such term loan and the fifth anniversary of the closing date. Once closed, the CIT Facility will replace our current asset-based lending credit facility.

Under the CIT Facility, advances will be subject to a borrowing base formula that will be computed based on 85% of our eligible accounts receivable and subsidiaries in general and as further defined in the loan documents, and subject to certain other criteria, conditions and applicable reserves, including any additional eligibility requirements as determined by the administrative agent. The CIT Facility will be subject to usual and customary covenants and events of default for credit facilities of this type. The interest rate, at our election, will be based on either the Base Rate, as defined, plus the applicable margin; or, LIBOR, or any successor thereto for the applicable interest period, subject to a 1% floor, plus the applicable margin. Based upon our anticipated amount of borrowings under the CIT Facility, the estimated effective interest rate is expected to be in the range of approximately 4% to approximately 5.25%, based on the three months LIBOR rate as of March 26, 2021. This compares to an approximately 11% interest rate currently paid on the Company’s present ABL. In addition to interest costs on advances outstanding, the CIT Facility will provide for an unused line fee ranging from 0.375% to 0.50% depending on the amount of undrawn credit, original issue discount and certain fees for diligence, implementation and administration.

Closing of the CIT Facility is subject to the completion of a satisfactory field examination and due diligence, compliance with the required closing conditions, execution of an acceptable inter-creditor agreement if term debt remains outstanding and finalization of definitive documentation.

Three Months Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to the Three Months Ended December 31, 2019 (all dollar amounts are presented in thousands)

Results of Operations

Net Revenues

Consolidated net revenues are comprised of the following:

Contract staffing services contributed $31,248 or approximately 90% of consolidated revenue, and direct hire placement services contributed $3,395, or approximately 10%, of consolidated revenue for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020. This compares to contract staffing services revenue of $33,078, or approximately 88%, of consolidated revenue and direct hire placement revenue of $4,479, or approximately 12%, of consolidated revenue for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019.

The overall decrease in contract staffing services revenues of $1,830, or 6%, for the three months ended December 31, 2020 compared to the three months ended December 31, 2019 was primarily attributable to the continuing presence and negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic mitigated to some extent as explained below since the beginning of the pandemic in approximately mid-March 2020. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a near immediate and sharp decline in demand for our staffing services due to client closures, postponements in projects and related needs for our services at some clients, and corresponding decreases in the volume of contract services billable hours. We experienced the majority, but not all, of these contract staffing services reductions in our finance, accounting, and office (“FAO”) professional end markets and in our Industrial Staffing Service Segment.

Direct hire placement revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2020 decreased by $1,084, or approximately 24%, over the three months ended December 31, 2019. Demand for the Company’s direct hire services also have sharply dropped due to the continuing presence and negative impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our business and revenues began to decrease significantly in approximately mid-March 2020. Consolidated net revenues for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020 of $34,681 decreased by approximately $1,496, or 4%, as compared with consolidated net revenues for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2019 of $36,177, and decreased by approximately $2,876, or 8%, as compared with consolidated net revenues for the sequential fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2019 of $37,557.

Consolidated net revenues decreased further by approximately $8,087, or 23%, to $26,594 during the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020; resulting in an aggregate decrease of $10,963 in quarterly revenues, or 29%, as compared with the $37,557 in revenues reported for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. Since the June 30, 2020 quarter, however, revenues have rebounded resulting in an increase of approximately $4,410, or 17%, to $31,004 during last year’s final fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2020, followed by another increase of $3,639, or 11.7%, to $34,643 in revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. Thus, sequential quarterly revenues have increased by $8,049 in aggregate, or 30.3%, from $26,594 for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 to $34,643 for the quarter ended December 31, 2020.

Consolidated revenues on monthly basis bottomed during the month of May 2020 to a low of approximately $8,248 and steadily rose each month to a high of $12,216 during the month of October 2020. November 2020’s revenues were lower at $10,560 largely due to significant lower billing days than October, including the Thanksgiving holidays. December 2020 revenues rose once again to $11,867 due to higher billing days and a significant increase in direct hire revenue. Management believes that the trend toward recovery since May 2020 is the result of actions taken to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and position the Company for recovery and, otherwise, is generally consistent with the recovery experienced in the overall U.S. economy so far.

We continue to observe, analyze and make modifications and changes to our business model and practices on a routine basis in response to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and related health and safety concerns. These include, but are not limited to, implementation of policies and procedures in observance of Federal, state and/or local guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, including matters ranging working from home, use of personal protective equipment (principally, protective masks), social distancing, personal hygiene and sanitary practices, and other preventative and responsive measures, impacting both our core human resources, as well as our contract laborers serving clients.

Cost of Contract Services

Cost of contract services includes wages and related payroll taxes and employee benefits of our contract services employees, and certain other contract employee-related costs, while working on contract assignments. Cost of contract services for the three months ended December 31, 2020 decreased by approximately 12% to $22,063 compared to $24,962 for the three months ended December 31, 2019. The $2,899 overall decrease in cost of contract services for the three months ended December 31, 2020 compared to the three months ended December 31, 2019 was primarily attributable to the corresponding decline in revenues, and an increase in additional premium refunds in the form of policyholder dividends from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation related to our Industrial Staffing Services segment.

(1)Includes gross profit from direct hire placements, for which all associated costs are recorded as selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses.

Our combined gross profit margin, including direct hire placement services (recorded at 100% gross margin) for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 was approximately 36.3% as compared with approximately 33.5% for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019.

In the Professional Staffing Services segment, our gross margin (excluding direct placement services) was approximately 26.2% for three-month period ended December 31, 2020 compared to approximately 26.4% for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. This small decrease is generally within a reasonable performance range for our professional (contract) staffing services segment business, which may be impacted by shifts in the amounts and mix of business between end markets and higher and lower billing rates and margins.

Our industrial staffing services gross margin for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 was approximately 45.5% versus approximately 15.6% for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. The increase in industrial staffing services gross margin is due to the amount of additional premium refunds in the form of policyholder dividends our light industrial business was eligible to receive under the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation retrospectively-rated insurance program. The three months ended December 31, 2020 includes $1,537 of annual premium refunds from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. The Industrial Services gross margins normalized for the effects of these items were approximately 15.4% and 15.6% for the three months ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The small decrease, adjusted to remove the effect of the larger workers’ compensation premium refund, also is generally within a reasonable performance range for our Industrial Staffing Services segment.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

SG&A expenses include the following categories:

Our SG&A for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 decreased by $1,804 as compared to the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. SG&A for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020, as a percentage of revenues, was approximately 27% compared to approximately 30% for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. The decrease in SG&A expenses is primarily attributable to a decrease in employee related expenses associated with the downturn associated with the coronavirus outbreak, a decrease in stock compensation expense, and our mitigating efforts beginning in approximately mid-March 2020 to reduce and manage costs to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and position us for recovery.

SG&A also includes certain non-cash costs and expenses incurred related to acquisition, integration and restructuring and other non-recurring activities, such as certain corporate legal and general expenses associated with capital markets activities that either are not directly associated with core business operations or have been eliminated on a going forward basis. These costs were estimated to be $142 and $377 for the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and include mainly expenses associated with former closed and consolidated locations, and personnel costs associated with eliminated positions.

Depreciation Expense

Depreciation expense was $73 and $79 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020, and 2019, respectively. The decrease is due to the fixed assets becoming fully depreciated.

Amortization Expense

Amortization expense was $1,044 and $1,398 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The decrease is due to certain SNI intangible assets related to non-compete agreements that have become fully amortized during the three-month period ended December 31, 2020.

Income from Operations

The income from operations increased by $2,149 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 compared to the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. The increase is mainly attributable to $1,537 of annual premium refunds from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation during the three months ended December 31, 2020. Excluding the impact of the refunds received, our income from operations increased by $612. This net increase in our income from operations is a result of a decrease in amortization expense and our mitigating efforts beginning in approximately mid-March 2020 to restore revenues and to reduce and manage costs to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and position us for recovery.

Interest Expense

Interest expense was $2,686 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020, which decreased by $533 compared to the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. The decrease in interest expense for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 is mainly attributable to the interest expense related to the former 9.5% Notes and 10% Notes that were included in the three-month period ended December 31, 2019. In addition, of the $2,686 of net interest expense, $1,637 represents cash interest related to our Senior Credit Agreement, $547 represents PIK interest on senior Term Loan, which is added to the Term Loan balance, and $445, which represents amortization of capitalized and other debt related costs.

Provision for Income Taxes

We recognized a tax benefit of $395 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2020. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended December 31, 2020 is higher than the statutory tax rate primarily due to statutory changes regarding PPP. In the three-month period ended December 31, 2020, the statutory changes regarding the deductibility of PPP Loan expenses resulted in the recognition of a $352 one-time benefit item. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended December 31, 2019 was lower than the statutory tax rate primarily due to an increase in the deferred tax liability related to indefinite lived assets. Other than the deferred tax liability relating to indefinite lived asset, the Company is maintaining a valuation allowance against the remaining net DTA position.

Net Loss

Our net loss was $315 and $3,563 for the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The increase in net income for the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 is mainly attributable to annual premium refund received from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, a decrease in interest expense and amortization expense, and other things discussed above.

We continue to closely manage costs and to pursue opportunities to selectively increase revenue producing headcount in key markets and industry verticals. We also seek to organically grow our professional contract services revenue and direct hire placement revenue, including business from staff augmentation, permanent placement, statement of work (“SOW”) and other human resource solutions in the IT, engineering, healthcare and finance and accounting higher margin staffing specialties. Our strategic plans to achieve this goal involve setting our aggressive new business growth targets, including initiatives to increase services to existing customers, increasing its numbers of revenue producing core professionals, including primarily business development managers and recruiters, changes to compensation, commission and bonus plans to better incentivize producers, and frequent interaction with the field to monitor and motivate growth. Our strategy entails both internal and acquisition growth objectives aimed at increasing revenue in the aforementioned higher margin and more profitable professional services sectors of staffing.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our primary sources of liquidity are revenues earned and collected from our clients for the placement of contractors and permanent employment candidates and borrowings available under the Credit Agreement. Uses of liquidity include primarily the costs and expenses necessary to fund operations, including payment of compensation to our contract and permanent employees, operating costs and expenses, payment of taxes, payment of interest and principal under its debit agreements, and capital expenditures.

The following table sets forth certain consolidated statements of cash flows data:

As of December 31 2020, we had $14,119 of cash on hand, which was an increase of $45 from $14,074 as of September 30, 2020. As of December 31, 2020, we had working capital of $11,485 compared to $13,351 of working capital as of September 30, 2020.

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities for the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2020 was $47 and $(1,450), respectively. The positive operating cash flow in the three-month period ended December 31, 2020 corresponds with positive income from operations and other net changes in working capital.

The primary uses of cash for investing activities were for the acquisition of property and equipment in the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

Cash flow used in financing activities for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 was primarily for payments on our term loan offset by proceeds from advances taken on our Senior Credit Agreement.

Minimum debt service payments (principal) for the twelve-month period commencing after the close of business on December 31, 2020, are approximately $6,942. All of our office facilities are leased. Minimum lease payments under all the Company’s lease agreements for the twelve-month period commencing after the close of business on December 31, 2020, are approximately $1,812.

We experienced net losses for the first three months of its current fiscal year, and for our most recent fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, which also negatively impacted our ability to generate liquidity. During much of this period, we significantly restructured our operations, made significant cost reductions, including closing and consolidating unprofitable locations and eliminating underperforming personnel, implemented strategic management changes, and intensified focus on stabilizing the business and restoring profitable growth. As a result, we believe we have begun to see our operations and business stabilize.

In approximately mid-March 2020, we began to experience the severe negative effects of the economic disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These have included abrupt reductions in demand for our primary sources of revenue, our temporary and direct hire placements, lost productivity due to business closings both by clients and at our own operating locations, and the significant disruptive impacts to many other aspects of normal operations. These effects have continued to be felt across all businesses, with the most severe impacts being felt in the commercial (light industrial) and FAO end markets within the professional segment.

Effective April 28, 2020, the Company entered into the Seventh Amendment to the Senior Credit Agreement with its senior lenders. The Seventh Amendment provides several important concessions and features, including extending the maturity of our senior debt by two years to June 30, 2023, and adjusting (reducing) cash debt service and thereby improving the Company’s ability to generate liquidity. Effective May 5, 2020 the Company entered into the Eighth Amendment which allowed the Company and its subsidiaries to obtain loans from BBVA pursuant to the PPP which was established under the CARES Act and administered by the SBA.

Between April 29 and May 7, 2020, the Company was able to obtain CARES Act relief financing under the PPP Loans for each of its operating subsidiaries, in the aggregate amount of $19,927. These funds were the only source of financing available to our companies and businesses and have been and continue to be absolutely critical to our ability to maintain operations, including the employment of our temporary and fulltime employees, in order to produce and meet our foreseeable liquidity requirements in the midst of this continuing worldwide Coronavirus Pandemic.

Management believes that the Company can generate adequate liquidity to meet its obligations for the foreseeable future or at least for the following twelve months assuming the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic do not worsen, and that economic recovery occurs.

Fiscal year ended September 30, 2020 (“fiscal 2020”), and fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 (“fiscal 2019”) (all dollar amounts are presented in thousands)

Results of Operations

Net Revenues

Consolidated net revenues are comprised of the following (in Thousand $):

Contract staffing services contributed $114,526 or approximately 88% of consolidated revenue, and direct hire placement services contributed $15,309 or approximately 12% of consolidated revenue for fiscal 2020. This compares to contract staffing services revenue of $133,143, or approximately 88% of consolidated revenue and direct hire placement revenue of $18,531 or approximately 12% of consolidated revenue, for fiscal 2019.

The overall decrease in contract staffing services revenue of $18,617, or 14%, for fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019 was primarily attributable to the continuous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting mitigation efforts beginning in approximately mid-March 2020. This resulted in a decline in demand for our staffing services due to client closures, postponements in projects and related needs for our services at some clients, and corresponding decreases in the volume of contract services billable hours. We experienced the majority, but not all, of these contract staffing services reductions in our finance, accounting, and office professional end markets and in our light industrial segment.

Direct hire placement revenue for fiscal 2020 decreased by $3,222, or 17%, over fiscal 2019. We also have seen demand for our direct hire services drop significantly due to the continuous negative impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our business and revenues began to decrease significantly in approximately mid-March 2020. Consolidated net revenues for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020 of $34,681 decreased by approximately $1,496, or 4%, as compared with consolidated net revenues for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2019 of $36,177, and decreased by approximately $2,876, or 8%, as compared with consolidated net revenues for the sequential fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2019 of $37,557.

Consolidated net revenues decreased further by approximately $8,087, or 23%, to $26,594 during the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020; however, have rebounded since resulting in an increase of approximately $4,410, or 17%, to $31,004 during this year’s final fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2020. Consolidated revenues on monthly basis bottomed during the month of May 2020 to a low of approximately $8,248 and steadily rose each month to a high of $12,216 during the month of October 2020. November 2020’s revenues were lower at $10,560 largely due to significant lower billing days than October, including the Thanksgiving holidays. Management believes that the trend towards recovery since May 2020 is the result of actions taken to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and position the Company for recovery and, otherwise, is generally consistent with the recovery experienced in the overall U.S. economy so far.

We continue to observe, analyze, and make modifications and changes to its business operating model and practices on a daily basis in response to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and related health and safety concerns. With regard to revenue generation, we have expanded focus and priority towards sales and marketing of our placement and staffing services to clients that provide products or services considered essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, including principally, IT, financial services, and healthcare staffing in the professional segment, and in our light industrial segment, staffing for clients that manufacture and distribute PPE. In addition, we have implemented policies and procedures in observance of Federal, state and/or local guidelines regarding the coronavirus, including but not limited to, working from home, use of personal protective equipment (principally, protective masks), social distancing, personal hygiene and sanitary practices, and other preventative and responsive measures, impacting both our core human resources, as well as our contract laborers serving clients.

Cost of Contract Services

Cost of contract services includes wages and related payroll taxes, employee benefits of our contract services employees, and certain other employee-related costs, while they work on contract assignments. Cost of contract services for fiscal 2020 decreased by approximately 15% to $85,131 compared to fiscal 2019 of $99,653. The $14,522 decrease in cost of contract services for fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019 is consistent with the decline in revenues, which is discussed further below.

The Company’s combined gross profit margin, including direct hire placement services (recorded at 100% gross margin) for fiscal 2020 was approximately 34.4% versus approximately 34.3% for the fiscal 2019.

In the professional contract staffing services segment, the gross margin excluding direct placement services was approximately 26.4% for fiscal 2020 compared to approximately 26.0% for fiscal 2019. The increase is primarily the result of increases in the amounts and mix of higher margin contract services business in IT end markets, including growth in several of our higher end IT brands during fiscal 2020, as compared with the prior fiscal year. This trend also is consistent with the COVID-19 pandemic related declines in business, which weighed more heavily on the Company’s lower margin finance, accounting, and office (primarily, office) and light industrial end markets, resulting in a higher mix of higher margin business.

Our industrial staffing services gross margin for fiscal 2020 was approximately 21.7% as compared with approximately 20.8% for fiscal 2019. The increase in industrial staffing services gross margin is due to a higher proportion of estimated amounts of return premiums our light industrial business is eligible to receive under the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation retrospectively-rated insurance program.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

SG&A expenses include the following categories:

Our SG&A for fiscal 2020, decreased by $2,338 as compared to fiscal 2019. SG&A for fiscal 2020, as a percentage of revenue was approximately 34.2% versus 30.8% for fiscal 2019. The increase in SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue is primarily attributable to the corresponding significant reduction in revenues, which resulted in less coverage of our SG&A fixed or semi-variable expenses. SG&A expenses for fiscal 2020 decreased as the result of a decrease in employee related costs of $2,984 and a decrease in a stock compensation expense of $627. SG&A in fiscal 2020 also included increases in bad debt expense of $1,765 compared to fiscal 2019, including $1,653 associated with a single large customer of our light industrial segment that has declared bankruptcy.

SG&A also includes certain costs and expenses incurred related to acquisition, integration and restructuring and other non-recurring activities, such as certain corporate legal and general expenses associated with capital markets activities that either are not directly associated with core business operations or may be expected not to recur in whole or in part on a going forward basis. These costs were $4,277 and $4,281 for fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019, respectively, and include mainly expenses associated with former closed and consolidated locations, personnel costs associated with eliminated positions, costs incurred related to acquisitions and associated legal and professional costs.

Depreciation Expense

Depreciation expense was $248 for fiscal 2020 and $349 for fiscal 2019. The net decrease in depreciation expense is primarily the result of Company fixed assets becoming fully depreciated exceeding new capital expenditures.

Amortization Expense

Amortization expense was $5,038, and $5,586 for fiscal 2020 and 2019. The decrease is due to amortization completion of SNI intangible asset related to non-compete agreements.

Goodwill Impairment

We performed annual goodwill impairment testing effective as of December 31, 2020 and September 30, 2020, and we allocate our goodwill among two reporting units, our Professional Staffing Services segment and our Industrial Staffing Services segment, for purposes of evaluation for impairments. As a result of the evaluation performed, the carrying value of the net assets exceeded the estimated fair value of our Professional Staffing Services segment as of September 30, 2020, while the estimated fair value of the Industrial Staffing Services segment exceeded its net carrying value. The outcome of this goodwill impairment test resulted in a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill applicable to the Professional Staffing Services segment of $8,850, which was recorded in the consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2020. For purposes of performing this goodwill impairment assessment, management applied valuation techniques and assumptions to its Professional and Industrial Staffing Services segments as reporting units and also considered recent trends in our stock price, implied control or acquisition premiums, earnings and other possible factors and their effects on estimated fair value of our reporting units.

We also considered our market capitalization, as recently reported on the NYSE American, in conducting our assessment, which has been lower than our consolidated net book value (consolidated shareholders’ equity). We believe that the continuing declines in global economic and labor market conditions and other disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that have negatively impacted our business and operating results also are contributing factors to the decline in our stock price at the time of the calculation of goodwill, market capitalization, and potentially, the value of our goodwill resulting, in part, in the non-cash impairment charge recognized during fiscal 2020. We believe and expect that these conditions, including those impacting us, are improving and will continue to improve. However, there can be no assurance that our goodwill or other long-lived assets will not become impaired in the future.

Due to a previous sustained decline in the market capitalization of our common stock during the third quarter of 2019, we also performed a goodwill impairment test in accordance with the provisions of ASU 2017-04, and recognized a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill of $4,300 in fiscal 2019.

Loss from Operations

As the net result of the matters discussed regarding revenues and operating expenses above, loss from operations increased by $8,880, to a loss of $13,833 for fiscal 2020 from a loss of $4,953 for fiscal 2019. The increase in our loss from operations is directly attributable to the matters discussed regarding revenues and operating expenses above; including, notably, the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in our bad debt expense of approximately $1,765, and an increase of approximately $4,550 in the amount of a non-cash goodwill impairment charge recognized in fiscal 2020, as compared with a similar non-cash goodwill impairment charge recognized during fiscal 2019.

Interest Expense

Interest expense for fiscal 2020, decreased by $207 compared to fiscal 2019. The decrease in interest expense is mostly attributable to a decrease in interest on the Senior Credit Agreement of $1,107 during fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019. This was mainly offset by increases in an amortization of the debt issue costs related to exit and restructuring fees originated under Seventh Amendment of $422 and interest expense for beneficial conversion feature associated with the former 8% Notes of $487 in fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019.

Provision for Income Taxes

We recognized provisions for income tax expense of $597 and $370 in fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. The composition of our income tax provisions is relatively complex; however, the net increase in the provision for fiscal 2020 as compared with fiscal 2019 can be attributed to higher state and local taxes in certain jurisdictions.

Net Loss

Our net loss was $14,347 and $17,763 for fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. The decrease in the net loss was principally the result of the gain recognized of $12,316 on an extinguishment of subordinated debt in fiscal 2020 that was offset by goodwill impairment of $8,850. As explained under the “Overview” section and “Results of Operations” sections above, the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the latter portion of fiscal 2020 also significantly impacted our business and contributed to our fiscal 2020 net loss.

Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Common Shareholders

Net Income (Loss) Attributable to common shareholders for fiscal 2020 increased by $27,891. The significant items contributing to this improvement were the gains resulting from extinguishments of the Company’s subordinated debt and outstanding preferred stock of $12,316 and $24,475, respectfully. These were offset, in part, by a non-cash goodwill impairment charge during fiscal 2020, which exceeded a similar non-cash charge in fiscal 2019 by approximately $4,550, increases in our bad debt expense of approximately $1,765, including $1,653 associated with a single large customer of our light industrial segment that has declared bankruptcy, and the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other matters discussed above.

We continue to closely manage costs and to pursue opportunities to selectively increase revenue producing headcount in key markets and industry verticals. The Company also seeks to organically grow its professional contract services revenue and direct hire placement revenue, including business from staff augmentation, permanent placement, SOW and other human resource solutions in the IT, engineering, healthcare and finance and accounting higher margin staffing specialties. The Company’s strategic plans to achieve this goal involve setting aggressive new business growth targets, including initiatives to increase services to existing customers, increasing its numbers of revenue producing core professionals, including primarily, business development managers and recruiters, changes to compensation, commission and bonus plans to better incentivize producers, and frequent interaction with the field to monitor and motivate growth. The Company’s strategic plan contains both internal and acquisition growth objectives to increase revenue in the aforementioned higher margin and more profitable professional services sectors of staffing.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The primary sources of liquidity for us are revenues earned and collected from our clients for the placement of contractors and permanent employment candidates and borrowings available under the Senior Credit Agreement. Uses of liquidity include primarily the costs and expenses necessary to fund operations, including payment of compensation to our contract and permanent employees, operating costs and expenses, and capital expenditures.

The following table sets forth certain consolidated statements of cash flows data:

At September 30, 2020, we had $14,074 of cash which was an increase of $10,019 from $4,055 at September 30, 2019. At September 30, 2020, we had working capital of $13,351 compared to $8,534 of working capital at September 30, 2019.

Net cash used in operating activities for fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019 was $2,247 and $394, respectively. The negative operating cash flow in the fiscal 2020 and 2019 corresponds with negative income from operations and other net changes in working capital.

The primary uses of cash for investing activities were for the acquisition of property and equipment in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019.

Cash flow provided by financing activities for fiscal 2020 was primarily attributed to the net funds received PPP Loans totaling $19,927 in order to provide needed relief for allowable expenses under the CARES Act PPP. Offsetting the effect of the new PPP funds received were payments required to pay down the Company’s Senior Credit Agreement resulting from the decline in the Company’s business and accounts receivable that serve as borrowing base collateral as a direct result of the Coronavirus Pandemic and settlement payments on the extinguishment of subordinated notes and preferred stock.

Minimum debt service payments (principal) for the twelve-month period commencing after the close of business on September 30, 2020, are approximately $3,132. Minimum lease payments under all the Company’s lease agreements for the twelve-month period commencing after the close of business on September 30, 2020, are approximately $1,848. All the Company’s office facilities are leased.

The Company experienced significant net losses for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, which also negatively impacted the Company’s ability to generate liquidity. During much of this period, the Company significantly restructured its operations, made significant cost reductions, including closing and consolidating unprofitable locations and eliminating underperforming personnel, implemented strategic management changes, and intensified focus on stabilizing the business and restoring profitable growth. As a result, management believes the Company had begun to see its operations and business stabilize.

In approximately mid-March 2020, the Company began to experience the severe negative effects of the economic disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These have included abrupt reductions in demand for the Company’s primary sources of revenue, its temporary and direct hire placements, lost productivity due to business closings both by clients and at the Company’s own operating locations, and the significant disruptive impacts to many other aspects of normal operations. These effects have continued to be felt across all businesses, with the most severe impacts being felt in the commercial (light industrial) and FAO end markets within the professional segment.

Following months of extensive negotiations, effective April 28, 2020, the Company entered into the Seventh Amendment to the Credit Agreement with its senior lenders. The Seventh Amendment (as defined below) is the most significant modification of the Company’s senior credit facilities since inception and provides several important concessions and features, including extending the maturity by two years to June 30, 2023, and adjusting (reducing) cash debt service and thereby improving the Company’s ability to generate liquidity. Effective May 5, 2020 the Company entered into the Eighth Amendment which allowed the Company and its subsidiaries to obtain loans from BBVA USA (“BBVA”) pursuant to the PPP which was established under the CARES Act and administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”).

Between April 29 and May 7, 2020, the Company was able to obtain CARES Act relief financing under the PPP Loan program for each of its operating subsidiaries, in the aggregate amount of $19,927. These funds were the only source of financing available to our companies and businesses and have been and continue to be absolutely critical to our ability to maintain operations, including the employment of our temporary and full-time employees, in order to produce and meet our foreseeable liquidity requirements in the midst of this continuing worldwide Coronavirus Pandemic.

On June 30, 2020, the Company completed a financial restructuring and eliminated $19,685 of its subordinated indebtedness and $27,695 of its convertible preferred stock as required pursuant to the terms of Seventh Amendment, dated as of April 28, 2020, to the Senior Credit Agreement, dated as of March 31, 2017. The Company entered into a Repurchase Agreement for Preferred Stock and Subordinated Notes (the “Repurchase Agreement”), dated as of June 30, 2020 with Ronald R. Smith (“Mr. Smith”), Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (“Thrivent”), Madison Capital Funding LLC (“Madison”), Maurice R. Harrison IV, Peter Langlois, Vincent Lombardo and Shane Parr (collectively with Smith, Thrivent and Madison, the “SNI Group Members” pursuant to which the SNI Group Members agreed to allow the Company to repurchase and settle all of the 9.5% Convertible Subordinated Notes (the “9.5% Notes”), Series B Convertible Preferred Stock, no par value (“Series B Preferred Stock”), 8% Convertible Subordinated Notes (“8% Notes”) and Series C 8% Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock, no par value (“Series C Preferred Stock”) held by each of them. All of the outstanding 9.5% Notes and all of the outstanding Series B Preferred Stock were held by SNI Group Members.

Management believes that the Company can generate adequate liquidity to meet its obligations for at least the next twelve months and foreseeable future thereafter, assuming the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic do not worsen, and that economic recovery continues.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2020, and during the three months then ended, and as of September 30, 2020, and 2019, and during the two fiscal years then ended, there were no transactions, agreements, or other contractual arrangements to which an unconsolidated entity was a party, under which the Company (a) had any direct or contingent obligation under a guarantee contract, derivative instrument or variable interest in the unconsolidated entity, or (b) had a retained or contingent interest in assets transferred to the unconsolidated entity.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates (Dollar amounts presented in thousands)

The consolidated financial statements are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and the rules of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Management makes estimates and assumptions that can affect the amounts of assets and liabilities reported as of the date of the consolidated financial statements, as well as the amounts of reported revenues and expenses during the periods presented. Those estimates and assumptions typically involve expectations about events to occur subsequent to the balance sheet date, and it is possible that actual results could ultimately differ from the estimates. If differences were to occur in a subsequent period, the Company would recognize those differences when they became known.

Significant accounting and disclosure matters requiring the use of estimates and assumptions include, but may not be limited to, revenue recognition, accounts receivable allowances, determining fair values of financial assets and liabilities, deferred income tax valuation allowances, accounting for asset impairments, and accounting for derivative liabilities and beneficial conversion features. Management believes that its estimates and assumptions are reasonable, based on information that is available at the time they are made.

The following accounting policies are considered by management to be “critical” because of the judgments and uncertainties involved, and because different amounts would be reported under different conditions or using different assumptions.

Revenue Recognition

Revenues from contracts with customers are generated through the following services: direct hire placement services, temporary professional services staffing, and temporary light industrial staffing. Revenues are recognized when promised services are performed for customers, and in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Our revenues are recorded net of variable consideration such as sales adjustments or allowances.

Direct hire placement service revenues from contracts with customers are recognized when employment candidates accept offers of employment, less a provision for estimated credits or refunds to customers as the result of applicants not remaining employed for the entirety of the Company’s guarantee period (referred to as “falloffs”). The company’s guarantee periods for permanently placed employees generally range from 60 to 90 days from the date of hire. Fees associated with candidate placement are generally calculated as a percentage of the new employee’s annual compensation. No fees for permanent placement services are charged to employment candidates.

Temporary staffing service revenues from contracts with customers are recognized in amounts for which the Company has a right to invoice, as the services are rendered by the Company’s temporary employees. The Company records temporary staffing revenue on a gross basis as a principal versus on a net basis as an agent in the presentation of revenues and expenses. The Company has concluded that gross reporting is appropriate because the Company controls the specified service before that service is performed for a customer. The Company has the risk of identifying and hiring qualified employees, has the discretion to select the employees and establish their price, and bears the risk for services that are not fully paid for by customers.

Falloffs and refunds during the period are reflected in the consolidated statements of operations as a reduction of placement service revenues. Expected future falloffs and refunds are reflected in the consolidated balance sheet as a reduction of accounts receivable.

See Note 15 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for disaggregated revenues by segment.

Payment terms in our contracts vary by the type and location of our customer and the services offered. The terms between invoicing and when payments are due are not significant.

Accounts Receivable

The Company extends credit to its various customers based on evaluation of the customer’s financial condition and ability to pay the Company in accordance with the payment terms. An allowance for doubtful accounts is recorded, as a charge to bad debt expense, where collection is considered to be doubtful due to credit issues. An allowance for placement fall-offs is recorded, as a reduction of revenues, for estimated losses due to applicants not remaining employed for the Company’s guarantee period. These allowances together reflect management’s estimate of the potential losses inherent in the accounts receivable balances, based on historical loss statistics and known factors impacting its customers. Management believes that the nature of the contract service business, wherein client companies are generally dependent on our contract employees in the same manner as permanent employees for their production cycles and the conduct of their respective businesses contributes to a relatively small accounts receivable allowance.

Fair Value Measurement

The Company follows the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value and enhances fair value measurement disclosure. Under these provisions, fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (i.e., the “exit price”) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

The standard establishes a hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs by requiring that the most observable inputs be used when available. Observable inputs are inputs that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on market data obtained from sources independent of the Company. Unobservable inputs are inputs that reflect the Company’s assumptions about the assumptions market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on the best information available in the circumstances. The hierarchy is described below:

Level 1: Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for assets or liabilities. The fair value hierarchy gives the highest priority to Level 1 inputs.

Level 2: Observable prices that are based on inputs not quoted on active markets but corroborated by market data.

Level 3: Unobservable inputs are used when little or no market data is available. The fair value hierarchy gives the lowest priority to Level 3 inputs.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the consolidated financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that we believe that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize our deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, we would make an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance, which would reduce the provision for income taxes.

We record uncertain tax positions in accordance with ASC 740 on the basis of a two-step process in which (1) we determine whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (2) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50 percent likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with the related tax authority.

We recognize and group interest and penalties, if any, with income tax expense in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations. As of December 31, 2020 and September 30, 2020, no material accrued interest or penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Goodwill

The Company evaluates its goodwill for possible impairment as prescribed by ASU 2017-04, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other (Topic 350), Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment at least annually and when one or more triggering events or circumstances indicate that the goodwill might be impaired. Under this guidance, annual or interim goodwill impairment testing is performed by comparing the estimated fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An impairment charge is recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, not to exceed the carrying value of goodwill.

The Company performed annual goodwill impairment testing effective as of September 30, 2020, and allocates its goodwill among two reporting units, its Professional Staffing Services segment and its Commercial segment for purposes of evaluation for impairments. In determining the fair value of our two reporting units, we use one or a combination of commonly accepted valuation methodologies: 1) the income approach, which is based on the present value of discounted cash flows projected for the reporting unit or, in certain instances, capitalization of earnings, and 2) the market approach, which estimates a fair value based on an appropriate revenue and/or earnings multiple(s) derived from comparable companies. These valuation techniques on assumptions and other factors, such as the estimated future cash flows of our reporting units, the discount rate used to determine the present value of our cash flows and the market multiples of comparable companies utilized. In applying our methods, we also use averages or medians to select assumptions derived from comparable companies or market data, and in the application of the income and/or market approaches if we determine that this will provide a more appropriate estimated fair value or range of fair value estimates of the reporting units. Changes to input assumptions and other factors used or considered in the analysis could result in materially different evaluations of goodwill impairment.

As a result of the evaluation performed, the carrying value of its net assets exceeded the estimated fair value of the Company’s Professional Staffing Services segment as of September 30, 2020, while the estimated fair value of the Commercial segment exceeded its net carrying value. The outcome of this goodwill impairment test resulted in a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill of $8,850, which was recorded in the consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2020. For purposes of performing this goodwill impairment assessment, management applied the valuation techniques and assumptions to its Professional and Commercial segments as reporting units discussed above and also considered recent trends in the Company’s stock price, implied control or acquisition premiums, earnings and other possible factors and their effects on estimated fair value of the Company’s reporting units.

Management also considered the Company’s market capitalization, as recently reported on the NYSE American exchange, in conducting its assessment, which has been lower than its consolidated net book value (consolidated shareholders’ equity). Management believes that the continuing declines in global economic and labor market conditions and other disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that have negatively impacted the Company’s business and operating results also are a contributing factor to the Company’s recent stock prices, market capitalization, and potentially, the value of its goodwill resulting, in part, in the non-cash impairment charge recognized during fiscal 2020. Management believes and expects that these conditions, including those impacting the Company, are improving and will continue to improve. However, there can be no assurance that the Company’s goodwill or other long-lived assets will not become impaired in the future.

The Company considered and reviewed the recoverability of its goodwill during the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 and determined that no impairment charge was necessary. In reaching its conclusion, management determined that no triggering events or other circumstances have occurred or changed since the Company’s most recent annual evaluation as of September 30, 2020, that indicate the carrying values of the Company’s reporting segments are higher than their respective fair values. Management also considered the Company’s market capitalization as recently reported on the NYSE American exchange and determined that when adjusted for the assumption of a reasonable control premium over exchange pricing, it exceeded the Company’s consolidated net book value (consolidated stockholders’ equity) during the three-month periods ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

The Company adopted ASU 2017-04 in 2019. Due to a previous sustained decline in the market capitalization of our common stock during the third quarter of 2019, we also performed a goodwill impairment test in accordance with the provisions of ASU 2017-04, and recognized a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill of $4,300 in fiscal 2019.

Intangible Assets

Separately identifiable intangible assets held in the form of customer lists, non-compete agreements, customer relationships, management agreements and trade names were recorded at their estimated fair value at the date of acquisition and are amortized over their estimated useful lives ranging from two to ten years using both accelerated and straight-line methods.

Impairment of Long-lived Assets (other than Goodwill)

The Company recognizes an impairment of long-lived assets used in operations, other than goodwill, when events or circumstances indicate that these assets might be impaired and the estimated undiscounted cash flows to be generated by those assets over their remaining lives are less than the carrying amount of those items. In the event the net carrying value of the Company’s long-lived assets are determined not to be recoverable, they are reduced to fair value, which is typically calculated using one or a combination of the relief from royalty method, the multiple of excess cash flow method, and/or other applicable adaptations of the discounted cash flow method. For purposes of testing the long-lived assets other than goodwill, long-lived assets are grouped and considered with other assets and liabilities within the Professional Staffing Services and Industrial Staffing Services segments. The Company did not record any impairments to its long-lived assets other than goodwill during the quarters ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, or during its fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019.

Beneficial Conversion Feature

The Company evaluates embedded conversion features within a convertible instrument under ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging to determine whether the embedded conversion feature(s) should be bifurcated from the host instrument and accounted for as a derivative at fair value with changes in fair value recorded in earnings. If the conversion feature does not require treatment under ASC 815, the instrument is evaluated under ASC 470-20 Debt with Conversion and Other Options for consideration of any beneficial feature.

The Company records a beneficial conversion feature (“BCF”) when the convertible instrument is issued with conversion features at fixed or adjustable rates that are below market value when issued. The BCF for convertible instruments is recognized and measured by allocating a portion of the proceeds equal to the intrinsic value of that feature to additional paid-in capital. The intrinsic value is generally calculated at the commitment date as the difference between the conversion price and the fair value of the common stock or other securities into which the security is convertible, multiplied by the number of shares into which the security is convertible. If certain other securities are issued with the convertible security, the proceeds are allocated among the different components. The portion of the proceeds allocated to the convertible security is divided by the contractual number of the conversion shares to determine the effective conversion price, which is used to measure the BCF. The effective conversion price is used to compute the intrinsic value. The value of the BCF is limited to the basis that is initially allocated to the convertible security.

The BCF for the convertible instrument is recorded as a reduction, or discount, to the carrying amount of the convertible instrument equal to the fair value of the conversion feature. The discount is then amortized as interest or deemed dividends over the period from the date of the convertible instrument’s issuance to the earliest redemption date, provided that the convertible instrument is not currently redeemable but probable of becoming redeemable in the future.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company accounts for stock-based awards to employees in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”, which requires compensation expense related to share-based transactions, including employee stock options, to be measured and recognized in the consolidated financial statements based on a determination of the fair value of the stock options. The grant date fair value is determined using the Black-Scholes-Merton (“Black-Scholes”) pricing model. For all employee stock options, we recognize expense on an accelerated basis over the employee’s requisite service period (generally the vesting period of the equity grant). The Company’s option pricing model requires the input of highly subjective assumptions, including the expected stock price volatility, expected term, and forfeiture rate. Any changes in these highly subjective assumptions significantly impact stock-based compensation expense.

Options awarded to purchase shares of common stock issued to non-employees in exchange for services are accounted for as variable awards in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”. Such options are valued using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.

Segment Data

The Company provides the following distinctive services: (a) direct hire placement services, (b) temporary professional services staffing in the fields of IT, engineering, medical, and accounting, and (c) temporary light industrial staffing. These distinct services can be divided into two reportable segments, industrial staffing services and professional staffing services. Selling, general and administrative expenses are not completely separately allocated among light industrial services and professional staffing services.

Operating results are regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and to assess its performance. Other factors, including type of business, type of employee, length of employment and revenue recognition are considered in determining these operating segments.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements (Dollar amounts presented in thousands)

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Lease Accounting. In February 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2016-02, Leases (“ASC 842”), which introduces the recognition of lease assets and lease liabilities by lessees for those leases classified as operating leases under previous ASC 840 guidance. The original guidance required application on a modified retrospective basis with the earliest period presented. In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, Targeted Improvements to ASC 842, which includes an option to not restate comparative periods in transition and elect to use the effective date of ASC 842, Leases, as the date of initial application of transition. We adopted this guidance as of October 1, 2019 and elected the transition method provided under ASU 2018-11. This standard has a material effect on our consolidated balance sheets with the recognition of new right of use assets and lease liabilities for all operating leases, except for those leases where we elected the short-term lease recognition exemption, as these leases have a non-cancelable lease term of approximately one year or less. Adoption of the new standard did not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations. As of the transition date, the ROU asset and total lease liability (current and long-term) were $5,900 and $6,341, respectively.

The Company elected the package of practical expedients available under the transition provisions of the new lease standard, including (i) not reassessing whether expired or existing contracts contain leases, (ii) lease classification, and (iii) not revaluing initial direct costs for existing leases. Also, the Company elected the practical expedient which allows aggregation of non-lease components with the related lease components when evaluating accounting treatment. Lastly, the Company applied the modified retrospective adoption method, utilizing the simplified transition option available in the ASC 842, which allows entities to continue to apply the legacy guidance in ASC 840, including its disclosure requirements, in the comparative periods presented in the year of adoption. See Note 5 for further discussion of leases.

Stock Compensation. In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-07, Compensation-Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”), which simplifies the accounting for nonemployee share-based payment transactions. The amendments specify that Topic 718 applies to all share-based payment transactions in which a grantor acquires goods or services to be used or consumed in a grantor’s own operations by issuing share-based payment awards. The update is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those reporting periods, with early adoption permitted (but no sooner than the adoption of Topic 606). The Company adopted the new guidance as of October 1, 2019. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

Current Expected Credit Losses Model. In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (“ASC 326”), authoritative guidance amending how entities will measure credit losses for most financial assets and certain other instruments that are not measured at fair value through net income. The guidance requires the application of a current expected credit loss model, which is a new impairment model based on expected losses. The new guidance is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2022. The Company has not yet determined the impact of the new guidance on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

No other recent accounting pronouncements were issued by FASB.

OUR BUSINESS

We are a provider of human resources solutions which primarily include the provision of temporary and permanent personnel in the professional and industrial services sectors to customers located throughout the United Sates. We, through our operating subsidiaries, deliver our services from a network of three virtual locations and 27 branch office locations located in or near several major U.S. cities, including, but not limited to, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Miami. We specialize primarily in the placement of IT, engineering, accounting and finance, health care, including scribes who specialize in EMR services for emergency departments, specialty physician practices and clinics, and office support professionals for direct hire and contract staffing. We also provide temporary light industrial (blue collar) staffing services for commercial clients.

Our material operating subsidiaries include Access Data Consulting Corporation, Agile Resources, Inc., BMCH, Inc., Paladin Consulting, Inc., Scribe Solutions, Inc., SNI Companies, Inc., Triad Logistics, Inc., and Triad Personnel Services, Inc. In addition, we and our operating subsidiaries own and operate under other trade names, including Accounting Now, Ashley Ellis, Staffing Now®, SNI Banking, SNI Certes®, SNI Energy®, SNI Financial®, SNI Technology®, GEE Group (Columbus), General Employment, Omni One and Triad Staffing.

Services Provided

We provide our services to a broad range of customers from small and medium-sized businesses to the Fortune 1000. Our services include the provision of highly specialized contract or permanently placed professionals in several verticals, including IT, engineering, accounting and finance, office support and healthcare, including scribes who specialize in EMR services for emergency departments, specialty physician practices and clinics. We provide office support professionals for direct hire and contract staffing services. We also provide temporary staffing services in the light industrial (blue collar) areas.

Our contract and placement services are principally provided under two operating divisions or segments: Professional Staffing Services and Industrial Staffing Services.

Our operating subsidiaries and end markets served under each of its operating divisions are as follows:

Professional Division

Industrial Division

Our Strategy

Our business strategy is multi-dimensional and encompasses both organic growth and growth through strategic acquisitions. The main tenants of our strategy are to:

Grow Organically By:

Growth Through Strategic Acquisitions:

We have historically grown significantly through acquisitions of complementary businesses. We intend to continue to expand our business through strategic acquisitions, subject to our business plans and management’s ability to identify, acquire and develop suitable acquisition or investment targets in both new and existing service categories. Along with our significant business growth to date, we have built a robust platform with the appropriate infrastructure and scalability, which we believe is necessary to assimilate acquisitions.

We continue to explore opportunities for potential acquisitions in the fragmented staffing industry. Our acquisition strategy includes, but is not limited to, targeting companies or transactions that we believe may have one or more of the following characteristics:

Marketing

We market our staffing services using our corporate and trade names in our respective vertical markets. As of March 1, 2021, we operated three virtual locations and 27 branch office locations in downtown or suburban areas of major U.S. cities in eleven states, including one located in each of Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Virginia, three offices in Colorado, two offices in Illinois and Massachusetts, four offices in Texas, seven offices each in Ohio and Florida.

We market our staffing services to prospective clients primarily through the use of the internet, specialty brands and corporate websites, digital direct mail campaigns, publishing annual electronic and widely distributed salary guides, advertising in tech, HR and accounting publications, attendance and booth displays at specialty trade shows, participation and membership in chambers of commerce, the SIM, Women in Technology and other business organizations, support for our employees’’ philanthropic activities, telephone marketing by our sales consultants and business development managers using our CRM tools to identify prospects, and through the mailing of tailored employment bulletins which list highly-skilled candidates available for placement and contract employees available for assignment.

Competition

The staffing industry is highly fragmented with a multitude of competitors. There are relatively few barriers to entry by firms offering direct hire placement and staff augmentation services although significant amounts of working capital typically are required to fund the payroll of temporary workers for businesses providing contract staffing services. New entrants to the staffing industry are constantly introduced to the marketplace. Our competitors include sole-proprietorship operations, local and regional firms as well as national organizations. In the U.S., large national firms have annual revenue of approximately $100 million and up to $10 billion. Regional firms yearly revenue ranges from $10 million or more. The largest portion of the marketplace is the bottom layer of this competitive landscape consisting of small, individual-sized or family-run operations. With low barriers to entry, sole proprietorships and smaller entities routinely enter the staffing industry. Many competitors are larger corporations with substantially greater resources than ours; however, as described below, we believe we are able to compete successfully in the verticals and end markets in which it operates.

Our professional and industrial staffing services compete effectively by providing highly qualified candidates who are well matched for the position, developing and maintaining outstanding client relationships on a local level, responding quickly to client requests, and by establishing offices in convenient locations. As part of our services, we provide professional reference checking, scrutiny of candidates’ work experience and optional custom background checks. In general, we believe that pricing is secondary to quality of service as a competitive factor. During slow hiring periods, however, competition can put pressure on our pricing and we believe we are able to effectively compete on price in such situations.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe that we are able to compete effectively in the staffing industry because we have:

Recruiting

The success of our services is highly dependent on our ability to recruit and retain qualified candidates. Prospective employment candidates are generally recruited through job postings and contact made electronically using various internet tools as well as telephone contact by our employment consultants. For internet postings, we maintain our corporate web page at www.geegroup.com and our specialty brand web pages in addition to extensive use of internet job posting bulletin board services. We also maintain database records of applicants’ skills through our ATS to assist in matching applicant skills with job openings and contract assignments. We generally screen, interview and, in many cases background check, all applicants who are presented to our clients.

Industry Overview

The staffing industry is divided into three major segments: temporary staffing services, professional employer organizations (“PEOs”) and placement agencies. Temporary staffing services provide workers for limited periods, often to substitute for absent permanent workers or to help during periods of peak demand. These workers, who are often employees of the temporary staffing agency, will generally fill clerical, technical, or industrial positions. PEOs, sometimes referred to as employee leasing agencies, contract to provide workers to customers for specific functions, often related to human resource management. In many cases, a customer’s employees are hired by a PEO and then contracted back to the customer. Placement agencies, sometimes referred to as executive recruiters or headhunters, find workers to fill permanent positions at customer companies. These agencies may specialize in placing senior managers, mid-level managers, technical workers, or clerical and other support workers.

Our business is mainly that of a temporary staffing company within the broader staffing industry, however, we also offer and provide permanent placement services in our Professional Staffing Services segment.

Staffing companies identify potential candidates through online advertising and referrals, and interview, test and counsel workers before sending them to the customer for approval. Pre-employment screening can include skills assessment and reference checking, as well as drug tests and criminal background checks. The personnel staffing industry has been radically changed by the internet. Many employers list available positions with one or several internet personnel sites, such as those offered by firms like Monster or CareerBuilder, and on their own websites. Personnel agencies operate their own sites and often still work as intermediaries by helping employers accurately describe job openings and by screening candidates who submit applications.

Major end-use customers include businesses from virtually all industries. Marketing involves direct sales presentations, referrals from existing clients and advertising. Agencies compete both for customers and workers. Depending on market supply and demand at any given time, agencies may allocate more resources either to finding potential employers or potential workers. Permanent placement agencies work either on a retained or on a contingency basis. Clients may retain an agency for a specific job search or on contract for a specific period. Temporary staffing services charge customers a fixed price per hour or a standard markup on prevailing hourly rates.

For many staffing companies, including ours, demand is lower late in the fourth calendar quarter and early in the first calendar quarter, partly because of holidays, and higher during the rest of the year. Staffing companies may have high receivables from customers. Temporary staffing agencies and PEOs must manage a high cash flow because they funnel payroll payments from employers. Cash flow imbalances also occur because agencies must pay workers even if they have not been paid by clients.

The revenue of staffing companies depends on the number of jobs they fill, which in turn can depend upon the economic environment. During economic slowdowns, many client companies may slow down or stop hiring altogether. Internet employment sites expand a Company’s ability to find workers without the help of traditional agencies. Staffing companies often work as intermediaries, helping employers accurately describe job openings and screen candidates. Increasing the use of sophisticated, automated job description and candidate screening tools could make many traditional functions of personnel agencies obsolete. Free social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are also becoming a common way for recruiters and employees to connect without the assistance of a staffing agency.

To avoid large placement agency fees, big companies may use in-house personnel staff, current employee referrals, or human resources consulting companies to find and hire new personnel. Because placement agencies typically charge a fee based on a percentage of the first year’s salary of a new worker, companies with many jobs to fill have a financial incentive to avoid use of agencies.

Many staffing companies are small and may depend heavily on a big customers for a large portion of revenue. Large customer concentration may lead to increased revenue, but also expose agencies to higher risks. When major accounts experience financial hardships, and have less need for temporary employment services, agencies stand to lose large portions of revenue.

The loss of a staff member who handles a large volume of business may result in a large loss of revenue for a staffing company. Individual staff members, rather than the staffing company itself, often develop strong relationships with customers. Non-compete agreements are commonly used by staffing companies, however, staff members who move to another staffing company are often able to work around terms and conditions of their non-compete agreements and move customers with them.

Some of the best opportunities for temporary employment are in industries traditionally active in seasonal cycles, such as manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail. However, seasonal demand for workers also creates cash flow fluctuations throughout the year.

Staffing companies are subject to regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and often by state authorities. Many federal anti-discrimination rules regulate the type of information that employment firms can request from candidates or provide to customers about candidates. In addition, the relationship between the agency and its temporary employees, or its employee candidates may not always be clear, resulting in legal and regulatory uncertainty.

Trends in the Staffing Business

Start-up costs for a staffing company can be relatively low. Individual offices can be profitable and consolidation is driven by opportunities for large or growing agencies to develop national relationships with big customers or build resources and scale for future growth. Some agencies expand by starting new offices in promising markets, others prefer to buy existing independent offices with proven staff and an existing customer roster, while still others focus on both.

At some companies, temporary workers have become such a large part of the workforce that staffing company employees sometimes work at the customer’s site to recruit, train, and manage temporary employees. Our Company has a number of onsite relationships with its customers. Staffing companies try to match the best qualified employees for the customer’s needs, but often provide additional training specific to that company, such as instruction in the use of proprietary software.

Some personnel consulting firms and human resource departments use psychological tests to evaluate potential job candidates. In addition to more comprehensive background checks, headhunters often check the credit history of prospective employees.

We believe the trends of outsourcing entire departments and dependence on temporary and leased workers will continue to expand creating opportunities for staffing companies. Taking advantage of their in house expertise in assessing worker capabilities, some staffing companies manage their clients’ entire human resource functions. Human resources outsourcing (“HRO”) may include management of personnel and payroll administration, tax filings, and benefit administration services. HRO may also include recruitment process outsourcing (“RPO”), whereby an agency manages all recruitment activities for a client.

New online technology is improving staffing efficiency. For example, some online applications coordinate workflow for staffing agencies, their clients and temporary workers, and allow agencies and customers to share work order requests, submit and track candidates, approve timesheets and expenses, and run reports. Interaction between candidates and potential employers is increasingly being handled online.

Initially viewed as rivals, some Internet job-search companies and traditional employment agencies are now collaborating. While some Internet sites do not allow agencies to use their services to post jobs or look through resumes, others find that agencies are their biggest customers, earning the sites a large percentage of their revenue. Some staffing companies contract to help client employers find workers online.

Most recently, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused staffing companies to significantly rethink and alter their operations and, in some cases, even their fundamental business models. Staffing companies already have played a prominent if not leading role in recent new workplace trends, including flexible scheduling and remote work arrangements, as two significant examples. A natural result of the shutdowns, quarantines, social distancing and other COVID-19 guidelines is reinforcement of these types of newer workplace trends. Therefore, we expect that even as the threat of COVID-19 lessens, these workplace trends are likely to continue on and occupy a permanent place going forward.

Competition

The staffing industry is highly fragmented with a multitude of competitors. There are relatively few barriers to entry by firms offering direct hire placement and staff augmentation services although significant amounts of working capital typically are required to fund the payroll of temporary workers for businesses providing contract staffing services. New entrants to the staffing industry are constantly introduced to the marketplace. Our competitors include sole-proprietorship operations, local and regional firms as well as national organizations. In the U.S., large national firms have annual revenue of approximately $100 million up to $10 billion. Regional firms yearly revenue ranges from $10 million or more. The largest portion of the marketplace is the bottom layer of this competitive landscape consisting of small, individual-sized or family-run operations. With low barriers to entry, sole proprietorships and smaller entities routinely enter the staffing industry. Many competitors are larger corporations with substantially greater resources than ours; however, the Company is able to compete successfully in the verticals and end markets in which it operates.