This margin improvement, which is not sustainable, reflects superior leverage as a result of strong revenue growth and a decrease in the region's bad debt provision due to recoveries. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation into the U.S. dollar, revenue increased 6 percent on a local currency basis over the comparable quarter in 2000. The operating margin declined to 9.3 percent from 14.7 percent in the 2000 first quarter primarily due to office expansions in the region. This amount is included in Non-Operating Income on the income statement. We have found it challenging to discern any patterns from our revenue in 2001.
Some weeks are very strong while others are much less so.
The company wishes to provide some perspective, however, on possible revenue and earnings relationships. With the hiring of 135 consultants and their support staff in the past 12 months, the company has been making investments in its future. This also means that it dramatically increased capacity just prior to the economic slowdown. The fixed costs of the base salaries of the newly hired consultants and support staff, as well as the expense to provide workspace, are significant to the company's cost structure. However, the company's management team is charged not only with the responsibility to meet short-term commitments but also to balance those commitments with the ability to grow longer term, for which these consultants will be pivotal.