Well before this pandemic, 95% of our employees were utilizing company laptops with the ability to work from home.
While the current environment is certainly challenging the way that we all live and work, DHI's business model gives us some level of protection and stability in these uncertain times, as 90% of our revenues are generated through annual subscription-based contracts.
As a result, as of March 31, we had already booked over 2/3 of our total revenue for fiscal 2020.
Despite this difficult environment, DHI was able to exceed its target of a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter.
We also took the precautionary step to ensure sufficient liquidity by drawing down an additional $25 million on our credit facility in early March while still maintaining a significant cushion to our covenants.
Over the longer-term, if you look at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics trend line for tech jobs over the past 20 years, including through the dotcom bubble and Great Recession, there has been a constant increase in technologist positions in this country.
In 2019, we delivered over 20 marquee product releases and dozens of minor releases.
We also moved 100% of our audience to a new Dice home page that includes a modern layout and navigation scheme.
However, less than 1% of its revenue historically has come from direct contracts with government agencies.
These teams grew their pipelines very successfully, and we signed on many new clients based on their efforts for the first 10 weeks of the quarter.
Obviously, the state of the U.S. economy changed dramatically in mid-March, and these teams, which are 100% dedicated to building new business relationships, have seen what we believe is a temporary slowdown in their efforts as a result.
The insights we've gained in the first 10 weeks of the quarter, and the momentum we saw in signing new customers, gives us great confidence that our focus on commercial accounts will be the cornerstone for our growth as the business environment normalizes.
For the first quarter, we reported total revenues, $6.6 million, which was down 3% from the fourth quarter and down 1% year-over-year when you exclude the impact of foreign exchange.
Dice revenue was $22.5 million in the first quarter, down 3% sequentially and down 3% year-over-year.
We ended the first quarter with 5,850 Dice recruitment package customers, which is down 3% sequentially and 4% year-over-year.
We continue to see an increase in our average monthly revenue per recruitment package customer, which was up 2% year-over-year to $1,153, or approximately $13,840 on an annual basis.
This is important, as over 90% of Dice revenue is recurring and comes from recruitment package customers.
Our Dice customer renewal rate was 67% for the first quarter, down 1 percentage point year-over-year, and our revenue renewal rate was 80%, which was also down 1 percentage point when compared to the same period last year.
As an example, currently 15% of our customers generate 50% of our recruitment package revenue, though no customer makes up even 1% of revenue.
First quarter revenue for eFinancial Careers was $7.2 million, down 6% from the fourth quarter and 10% year-over-year when excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates.
ClearanceJobs' first quarter revenue was $6.9 million, increase of 4% sequentially and 19% year-over-year.
Turning to operating expenses, first quarter operating expenses were $41.9 million, which includes an impairment of the Dice trade name of $7.2 million, which I will address in a moment.
Excluding the impairment, operating expenses were $34.7 million, representing an increase of $1.2 million, or 3% year-over-year.
We had a tax benefit for the first quarter of approximately $900,000, resulting in an effective tax rate of 12%, which includes the impacts of the impairment losses and certain discreet tax items related to stock-based compensation.
As I mentioned, during the first quarter, we recorded an impairment charge of $7.2 million related to the Dice trade name.
Also, during the quarter, we recorded an impairment charge of $2 million due to liquidity concerns for a minority equity investment made in 2016 and 2017.
We recognized a net loss for the first quarter of $6.6 million, or $0.13 per diluted share compared to net income of $1.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share a year ago.
This quarter's earnings per share had a $0.16 detriment as a result of the impairment of intangible assets and equity investments, as well as certain discreet tax and other items.
Last year's earnings had a $0.04 detriment from disposition-related and discreet tax items.
Excluding those items, on a normalized basis, earnings per share for the quarter was $0.03 versus $0.07 last year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin for the first quarter was 21%, down from 23% in the same quarter last year.
We generated $2.9 million of operating cash flow in the first quarter compared to $3.2 million in the prior year quarter.
From a liquidity perspective, at year-end we had approximately $5 million of net debt and $10 million drawn on a $90 million revolver.
During the quarter, we drew down $27 million from our revolver, which puts us at 1.1 times leverage, which is well within our covenant of 2.5 times leverage.
At the end of the quarter, our total debt was $37 million.
We had $27.8 million of cash resulting in net debt of $9.2 million.
Deferred revenue at the end of the quarter was $55.5 million, down 9% from a year ago.
When we add the unbilled portion of our contracts to deferred revenue, our committed contract backlog at the end of the quarter was down 1% from the end of the first quarter last year.
As part of our share buyback program, we repurchased approximately 660,000 shares during first quarter for $1.6 million, or $2.49 per share.
This left roughly $3.3 million remaining of the current $7 million buyback program, which runs through May of this year.
I would like to note that DHI's Board of Directors has approved a new $5 million share buyback program, which will begin following the expiration of our current program and run through May of 2021.
As an example, approximately 75% of the global 50 banks are customers.
With regards to ClearanceJobs, they grew through the dot-com implosion of 2001 and the Great Recession of 2008 because their success is correlated to the U.S. Department of Defense budget which is, relatively speaking, immune to the environment we find ourselves in.
We continue to manage the business to margins in the 20% range.

Summary:
As a result, as of March 31, we had already booked over 2/3 of our total revenue for fiscal 2020.
For the first quarter, we reported total revenues, $6.6 million, which was down 3% from the fourth quarter and down 1% year-over-year when you exclude the impact of foreign exchange.
We recognized a net loss for the first quarter of $6.6 million, or $0.13 per diluted share compared to net income of $1.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share a year ago.