Consolidated revenues before reimbursements decreased 2.3% in 2020 due to decreases in our Crawford TPA Solutions and Crawford Specialty Solutions operating segments, primarily due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and Canada, partially offset by an increase in revenues in our Crawford Claims Solutions segment, due to an increase in weather related activity in the U.S. and new client growth. Changes in foreign exchange rates decreased our segment revenues by $5.8 million, or approximately 0.6%, for 2020 compared with 2019. Excluding the change in foreign exchange rates, consolidated revenues before reimbursements decreased $17.5 million, or 1.7% compared with 2019.
Excluding centralized indirect support costs, gross profit increased from $76.7 million, or 22.6% of revenues before reimbursements in 2019, to $77.5 million, or 21.7% of revenues before reimbursements in 2020, due primarily to the increased revenues in 2020.
As a result of the economic contraction from the COVID-19 pandemic, cases received in future quarters could be materially negatively impacted, unless offset by the impact of cases received from new client programs or weather related activity.
The most significant expense in our Crawford Specialty Solutions segment is the compensation of employees, including related payroll taxes and fringe benefits, and payments to outsourced service providers that augment the functions performed by our employees. Crawford Specialty Solutions direct compensation, fringe benefits, and non-employee labor expense, as a percent of the related revenues before reimbursements, was 52.1% in both 2020 and 2019. The amount of these expenses decreased from $141.8 million in 2019 to $135.9 million in 2020. The decrease in the dollar amount in 2020 was due to expense reduction initiatives related to the lower revenues, and the LWI disposal. There was a benefit of $2.3 million in 2020 as a result of the CEWS. Average FTEs in this segment totaled 1,404 in 2020, compared to an average of 1,481 FTEs in 2019. The decrease in employees was partially due to the LWI disposal referenced above, which had an average of 56 full-time equivalent employees in 2019 compared to 27 in 2020.
The dollar amount of these expenses decreased from $239.1 million in 2018 to $223.6 million in 2019. There was an average of 2,905 FTEs in 2019 compared with an average of 3,002 FTEs in 2018. The decrease in expenses and FTEs in 2019 was primarily due to the reduction in employees related to the lower revenues in the current period.
We estimate the service and interest components of net periodic benefit cost for U.S. and international pension and other postretirement benefits. This approach discounts the individual expected cash flows underlying the service cost and interest cost using the applicable spot rates derived from the yield curve used to discount the cash flows used to measure the benefit obligation. For the pension plans, the weighted average spot rates used to determine interest costs were 3.92% for the Company’s U.S. plans and 1.71% for the U.K. plans.
Our effective tax rate, defined as our provision for income taxes divided by income before income taxes, for financial reporting purposes in 2020, 2019, and 2018 was 30.7%, 59.7%, and 42.0%, respectively. If our effective tax rate used for financial reporting purposes changed by 1.0%, we would have recognized an increase or decrease to income taxes of approximately $0.4 million, $0.2 million and $0.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively. Our effective tax rate for financial reporting purposes is expected to range between 30% and 32% in 2021 before considering any discrete items and assuming no changes in tax law or policy in the material jurisdictions in which we operate.
Our tax credit carryforwards primarily consist of $6.4 million of foreign tax credit ("FTC") carryforwards, of which $2.3 million expire in 2021. Companies that cannot credit all the foreign taxes paid or deemed paid in a particular tax year because their foreign taxes exceed their FTC limitation are allowed to carry their excess taxes back to the preceding tax year and then forward to the ten succeeding years. Utilization of our FTCs is dependent upon sufficient U.S. regular taxable income and foreign source income in the relevant foreign tax credit basket, which is impacted by the interaction of overall domestic and overall foreign loss rules. Based on our projections of income through 2021, we expect to fully utilize all but $2.0 million of the FTC carryforwards before expiration, for which a valuation allowance is recorded, after consideration of the Tax Act and the four sources of taxable income.
See Note 1, "Significant Accounting and Reporting Policies," of our accompanying consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of recent accounting pronouncements including the dates, or expected dates of adoption, and effects, or expected effects, on our disclosures, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
During the fourth quarter of 2020, the Company performed the goodwill impairment testing on the remaining reporting units. The estimated fair value of the Company's Crawford TPA Solutions, Global Technical Services and Contractor Connection reporting units exceed their carrying value by a significant margin. The Company intends to continue to monitor the performance of its reporting units for potential indicators of impairment. If impairment indicators exist, the Company will perform an interim goodwill impairment analysis.
The following table presents Crawford Claims Solutions revenues before reimbursements disaggregated by geography for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. The Company considers all Crawford Claims Solutions revenues to be derived from one service line.
During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company acquired two separate Global Technical Services businesses in Canada for total consideration of approximately $3,400,000 which is comprised of $2,500,000 paid at closing, net of cash acquired of $134,000, $348,000 to be paid in one year and contingent earnout consideration of $377,000. The acquisitions were accounted for under the guidance of ASC 805-10, as business combinations under the acquisition method. As a result of the acquisitions, the Company recognized net tangible assets of $462,000, net of both the deferred payment and contingent earnout, definite lived intangible assets of $1,094,000, goodwill of $1,296,000 and deferred taxes of $202,000. The results of the acquisitions are reported within the Company's Crawford Specialty Solutions operating segment.
The components of operating lease costs within the Company's Consolidated Statements of Operations consisted of the following:
Supplemental cash flow information related to operating leases were as follows:
During 2020, the Company impaired and expensed goodwill of $17,674,000. During 2019, the Company impaired and expensed goodwill of $17,484,000. During 2018, the Company impaired and expensed an indefinite-lived trade name of $1,056,000. See Note 1, "Significant Accounting and Reporting Policies" and Note 4, "Goodwill and Intangible Assets," where discussed in more detail.
Restructuring costs for the year ended December 31, 2020 were related to reductions of administrative costs and consolidation of management layers in certain operations, and other restructuring charges for asset impairments and lease termination costs.