This is also captured in our recent Skills Revolution thought leadership series, Renew, Reskill and Redeploy, conducted across 26,000 employers in 40-plus countries.
In the fourth quarter, revenue was $5.1 billion, down 6% year-over-year in constant currency, a significant improvement from the 14% decline in the third quarter on the same basis.
On a reported basis, we recorded an operating profit for the quarter of $138 million.
Excluding restructuring charges, operating profit was $151 million, down 24% in constant currency.
Reported operating profit margin was 2.7%, down 100 basis points from the prior year.
And after excluding restructuring, operating profit margin was 3%, down 70 basis points from the prior year.
Reported earnings per diluted share of $1.33 reflects the impact of restructuring charges.
Excluding the restructuring charges, our earnings per diluted share was $1.48 for the quarter, representing a decrease of 39% in constant currency.
Reported earnings per share for the year was $0.41.
Excluding restructuring charges and special items, earnings per share was $3.67 and represented a constant currency decrease of 53% year-over-year.
Revenues for the year decreased 14% in constant currency to $18 billion and reported operating profit was $188 million.
Excluding restructuring and special items, operating profit was $377 million, which represented a 48% constant currency decline year-over-year.
On a reported basis, our operating profit was $138 million.
Excluding restructuring charges, our operating profit was $151 million, representing a decline of 21% or a decline of 24% on a constant currency basis.
This resulted in an operating profit margin of 3% before restructuring charges, which was above the high end of our guidance.
After adjusting for the positive impact of currency of about 4%, our constant currency revenue declined about 6.5%, which rounds to 6% on a single-digit percentage basis.
As acquisition and billing days had no net effects, the organic days adjusted revenue decline was also about 6.5%.
This represented an improvement from the third quarter revenue decline of 15% on a similar basis and two consecutive quarters of significant improvement from the second quarter of 2020.
On a reported basis, earnings per share was $1.33, which included the restructuring charges of $12 million, which, including related tax impacts, represented a negative $0.15.
Excluding the restructuring charges, earnings per share was $1.48, which exceeded our guidance range.
Included within this result was improved operational performance of $0.38; better-than-expected foreign currency exchange rates, which added $0.03; a lower weighted average share count from share repurchases that added $0.02, offset by higher other expenses that had a negative impact of $0.05.
Our gross margin came in at 15.8%.
Underlying staffing margin contributed to a 40 basis points reduction.
The anniversary of the incremental fee-owned subsidies in France in October and the mix of higher seasonal year-end enterprise activity within the Manpower brand drove the overall additional year-over-year staffing margin decline from the third quarter result of down 20 basis points year-over-year.
A lower contribution from permanent recruitment also contributed 30 basis points of GP margin reduction.
10 basis points of increased gross profit margin from career transition growth within Right Management was offset by a 10 basis point decline driven by a higher mix of seasonal other nonstaffing activity.
During the quarter, the Manpower brand comprised 65% of gross profit, our Experis Professional business comprised 20% and Talent Solutions brand comprised 15%.
During the quarter, our Manpower brand reported an organic constant currency gross profit decrease of 11%.
This was an improvement from the 17% decline in the third quarter.
Gross profit in our Experis brand declined 14% year-over-year during the quarter on an organic constant currency basis, which represented an improvement from the 19% decline in the third quarter.
Organic gross profit crossed back over to growth in the quarter at 1% in constant currency year-over-year, which is an improvement from the 2% decline in the third quarter.
Our reported SG&A expense in the quarter was $661 million, including the restructuring charges of $12 million.
Excluding the restructuring charges, SG&A of $649 million represented a decrease of $19 million from the prior year.
This underlying decrease was driven by $40 million of operational cost reductions, a decrease of $2 million from net dispositions, partially offset by an increase of $22 million from currency changes.
On an organic constant currency basis, excluding restructuring, SG&A expenses decreased 6% year-over-year, which represented a very strong recovery against the 10% gross profit decline.
SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue continued to improve sequentially and represented 12.8% in the fourth quarter, excluding restructuring.
The Americas segment comprised 20% of consolidated revenue.
Revenue in the quarter was $1 billion, a decrease of 3% in constant currency.
OUP was $48 million and OUP margin was 4.7%.
The U.S. is the largest country in the Americas segment, comprising 61% of segment revenues.
Revenues in the U.S. was $622 million, representing a decrease of 4% compared to the prior year.
Adjusting for franchise acquisitions, this represented a 5% decrease, which is a significant improvement from the 16% decline in the third quarter.
During the quarter, OUP for our U.S. business decreased 11% to $30 million.
OUP margin was 4.8%.
Within the U.S., the Manpower brand comprised 36% of gross profit during the quarter.
Revenue for the Manpower brand in the U.S. was down 2% when adjusted for days and franchise acquisitions, which reflects a material improvement from the 21% decline in the third quarter.
The Experis brand in the U.S. comprised 27% of gross profit in the quarter.
Within Experis in the U.S., IT skills comprised approximately 80% of revenues.
Revenues within our IT vertical within Experis U.S. declined 13% during the quarter and total Experis U.S. revenues declined 14% as the finance and engineering verticals experienced greater decreases.
Talent Solutions in the U.S. contributed 37% of gross profit and experienced revenue growth of 6% in the quarter.
Within Right Management in the U.S., revenues increased 8% year-over-year driven by career transition activity during the quarter.
Our Mexico operation experienced a revenue decline of 6% in constant currency in the quarter, representing an improvement from the 9% decline in the third quarter.
Mexico represented between 2.5% and 3% of our global revenues in 2020.
Revenue in Canada declined 10% in constant currency during the quarter.
This represented a slight improvement from the third quarter billing days adjusted revenue decline of 11%.
Revenue in the other countries within Americas crossed back over to growth with a 4% increase in constant currency, reflecting a significant improvement from the 6% decline in the third quarter.
Southern Europe revenue comprised 46% of consolidated revenue in the quarter.
Revenue in Southern Europe came in at $2.3 billion, a decrease of 7% in constant currency.
OUP, including restructuring costs, equaled $100 million.
Excluding restructuring costs, OUP decreased 25% from the prior year in constant currency and OUP margin was down 100 basis points.
The $4 million in restructuring costs represented France real estate optimization.
France revenue comprised 56% of the Southern Europe segment in the quarter and was down 11% from the prior year in constant currency.
OUP, including restructuring costs, was $62 million in the quarter.
Excluding restructuring costs, OUP was $66 million and OUP margin was 5%.
Revenue in Italy equaled $423 million in the quarter as Italy crossed back over to growth.
Revenues increased 3% in constant currency during the quarter, which was a significant improvement from the 12% days-adjusted decline in the third quarter.
OUP declined 25% year-over-year in constant currency to $24 million and OUP margin decreased 200 basis points to 5.6%.
Revenue increased 18% on a days-adjusted constant currency basis from the prior year in the quarter.
This represented a significant improvement from the 6% decrease in the third quarter.
Revenue in Switzerland decreased 14% on a days-adjusted constant currency basis from the prior year in the quarter.
This represents a slight decline from the 13% decrease in the third quarter as our Switzerland business did not experience the year-end seasonal increases that the other large markets in Southern Europe experienced.
Our Northern Europe segment comprised 22% of consolidated revenue in the quarter.
Revenue declined 11% in constant currency to $1.1 billion, representing a significant improvement from the 22% decline in the third quarter driven by the U.K. and the Netherlands.
OUP, including restructuring costs, represented $9 million.
Excluding restructuring costs, OUP was $18 million and OUP margin was 1.6%.
The $9 million in restructuring cost relates to Germany, where we restructured a majority-owned venture with a third-party partner.
Our largest market in Northern Europe segment is the U.K., which represented 36% of segment revenue in the quarter.
During the quarter, U.K. revenues decreased 7% in constant currency, which represented a significant improvement from the 22% decline in the third quarter.
In Germany, revenues declined 31% in constant currency adjusted for billing days in the fourth quarter, which did not represent a significant change from the 32% decline in the third quarter.
In the Nordics, revenues declined 6% on a days-adjusted constant currency basis.
On a days-adjusted constant currency basis, Norway experienced a decline of 6% and Sweden declined 4%.
Revenues in the Netherlands decreased 12% on a days-adjusted constant currency basis, which represents a significant improvement from the third quarter decline of 23%.
Belgium experienced a days-adjusted revenue decline of 25% in constant currency during the quarter, which also reflects improvement from the third quarter trend.
Revenue increased 9% in constant currency, which represents a significant improvement from the third quarter decrease of 5% in constant currency.
The Asia Pacific Middle East segment comprises 12% of total company revenue.
In the quarter, revenue decreased 1% in constant currency to $617 million.
OUP represented $18 million and OUP margin decreased 70 basis points year-over-year.
Revenue growth in Japan was up 5% on a constant currency basis, which represents a slight decrease from the 6% growth rate in the third quarter.
Revenues in Australia declined 2% in constant currency on a days-adjusted basis.
This represents an improvement from the 7% decline in the third quarter.
Revenue in other markets in Asia Pacific Middle East declined 7% in constant currency, also representing an improving trend from the third quarter.
Free cash flow equaled $886 million for the year.
During the fourth quarter, free cash flow equaled $201 million compared to $302 million in the prior year quarter.
At quarter end, days sales outstanding decreased by about 3.5 days to 54 days.
Capital expenditures represented $51 million during 2020.
During the fourth quarter, we purchased 2.5 million shares of stock for $201 million.
Our purchases for the full year totaled 3.4 million shares for $265 million.
As of December 31, we have 3.4 million shares remaining for repurchase under the six million share program approved in August of 2019.
As previously announced, we also increased the semiannual dividend paid in December 2020 by 7.3%.
Our balance sheet was strong at quarter end with cash of $1.57 billion and total debt of $1.12 billion, resulting in a net cash position of $443 million.
Our debt ratios remain comfortable at quarter end, with total gross debt to trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA of 2.48 and total debt to total capitalization at 31%.
In addition, our revolving credit facility for $600 million remained unused.
On that basis, we are cautiously forecasting earnings per share for the first quarter to be in the range of $0.64 to $0.72, which includes a favorable impact from foreign currency of $0.07 per share.
Our constant currency revenue guidance range is between a decline of 4% to a decline of 6%.
The midpoint of our constant currency guidance is a decline of 5%.
At the midpoint, this would yield an organic days-adjusted rate of revenue decline of 3% for the first quarter, representing an ongoing improvement from the 6.5% decline in Q4.
We expect our operating profit margin during the first quarter to be down 50 basis points compared to the prior year, reflecting a third consecutive quarter of sequential improvement in the year-over-year rate of adjusted operating margin decline.
Regarding the effective tax rate, the government of France finalized their budget with the expected 50% reduction in the French business tax and a continuation of the corporate income tax reductions.
Combined, this serves to reduce our underlying effective tax rate by about 4%.
However, we will continue to have an elevated tax rate until we are closer to precrisis levels of pre-tax earnings and are estimating a full year 2021 effective tax rate of approximately 35%.
The effective tax rate in the first quarter will be slightly lower at 34% based on the inclusion of certain discrete items.
And we estimate our weighted average shares to be 56.2 million.
We have already implemented PowerSuite in our front office and in businesses across 17 countries, are in the process of implementation in another wave of businesses across 17 more countries.
Our B2C digital investments build off the success of Mon Manpower, our French associate app, which has had more than 1.3 million downloads, the most downloaded and the most highly rated in the French market.
In France, 1/3 of our applicants are sourced via the app with an average of 150,000 active users a month enjoying a full portfolio of B2C services, including on-demand access to current targeted assignment opportunities, time management and payroll technology and other services, including online carpooling.

Summary:
In the fourth quarter, revenue was $5.1 billion, down 6% year-over-year in constant currency, a significant improvement from the 14% decline in the third quarter on the same basis.
Reported earnings per diluted share of $1.33 reflects the impact of restructuring charges.
Excluding the restructuring charges, our earnings per diluted share was $1.48 for the quarter, representing a decrease of 39% in constant currency.
On a reported basis, earnings per share was $1.33, which included the restructuring charges of $12 million, which, including related tax impacts, represented a negative $0.15.
Excluding the restructuring charges, earnings per share was $1.48, which exceeded our guidance range.
In addition, our revolving credit facility for $600 million remained unused.
On that basis, we are cautiously forecasting earnings per share for the first quarter to be in the range of $0.64 to $0.72, which includes a favorable impact from foreign currency of $0.07 per share.