Revenue at Robert Half International Inc fell by 37.4% to $725.9m (£434.9m) in the third quarter of 2009. This compares with $1.16bn in the third quarter of last year.

Revenue at the company’s finance & accounting division slumped by 60.4% to $43.0m. Revenue was also down at Robert Half Technology (33.6%); OfficeTeam (35.7%); Robert Half Management Resources (42.2%); Protiviti (30.5%); and Accountemps (34%).

Third quarter net income fell 85.5% to $9.5m from $65.8m in the same quarter in 2008.

In a conference call to analysts, chairman and chief executive of Robert Half, Max Messmer, said: “While the global business environment during the third quarter remained challenging, year-over-year revenue declines in our staffing operations continued to moderate, and, on a sequential basis, we saw some improvement in revenues in September and early October.”

Staffing Industry Analysts reported chief financial officer Keith Waddell as saying that he expected fourth-quarter revenue to be between $675m to $720m, representing a year-on-year decrease of roughly 27% to 32%.