We achieved $0.91 and adjusted earnings per share and $60 million of adjusted EBITDA with our growth rebounding ahead of plan from the pandemic lows a year ago.
As for our growth metric, the average number of paid worksite employees increased by 7% over Q2 of 2020 above the high end of our forecasted range of 5% to 6%, and this was a sequential increase of 4.3% over Q1 of 2021.
Both worksite employees paid from new client sales and net gains from hiring in our client base exceeded our targets and second quarter client retention came in at our historical high levels of 99%.
Now along with worksite employee growth, our revenue per worksite employee, which included a 6% increase in pricing and the non-recurrence of the 2020 FICA deferral and customer service fee credits exceeded our expectations.
In spite of these three factors, we experienced a decline in gross profit of 9% from Q2 of 2020 related to the dynamics associated with the pandemic.
Now, another positive outcome in the payroll tax area during Q2 was the receipt of $11 million of federal payroll tax refunds related to prior years.
During the quarter, we repurchased 98,000 shares of stock at a cost of $9 million, raised our dividend rate by 12.5% paying out $17 million in cash dividends and invested $9 million in capital expenditures.
We ended Q2 with $213 million of adjusted cash and $370 million of debt.
As the year began, we were optimistic we would achieve this growth rate by year end or early 2022, despite the loss of our largest client, which represented just under 3% of our worksite employee base.
Outperformance in paid worksite employees from previous booked sales combined with stronger than expected hiring within the client base and historically high client retention to produce a rapid acceleration in our unit growth; in fact, paid worksite employees were up 9% in four months by the end of June over our low point of the year in February.
New sales in the second quarter met our targets with booked sales for new clients and worksite employees up 39% and 30% respectively over last year.
Another highlight from our sales organization this quarter was booked sales for our traditional employment solution, Workforce Acceleration, which achieved 94% of forecast.
We saw some of these effects in our own data this year with average wages and bonuses up 7% and 44% respectively.
We expect to begin ramping up the number of Business Performance Advisors at a rate of approximately 10 per month and go into 2022 at around 700 BPAs across country.
My optimism for the long-term future is rooted in a different dynamic than I've seen in the 35 years building our company and industry.
We are now forecasting 5.5% to 6.5% worksite employee growth for the full year, an improvement over our previous guidance of 4% to 6% growth.
We are forecasting Q3 paid worksite employee growth of 9.5% to 10.5% over Q3 of 2020, so it's coming off the 7% year-over-year growth in the prior quarter.
When considering this factor and the investment of a portion of the earnings upside for the first half of the year, we are now forecasting adjusted EBITDA in a range of $258 million to $288 million.
This is up from our previous guidance of $250 million to $280 million.
As for full year 2021, adjusted EPS, we are now forecasting a range of $4 to $4.59 up from our previous guidance of $3.83 to $4.40.
As for Q3, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA in a range of $52 million to $62 million and adjusted earnings per share from $0.74 to $0.93.

Summary:
We achieved $0.91 and adjusted earnings per share and $60 million of adjusted EBITDA with our growth rebounding ahead of plan from the pandemic lows a year ago.
As for full year 2021, adjusted EPS, we are now forecasting a range of $4 to $4.59 up from our previous guidance of $3.83 to $4.40.
As for Q3, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA in a range of $52 million to $62 million and adjusted earnings per share from $0.74 to $0.93.