International placement fees were consistent with last year on a constant currency basis. Overall gross profit was down 5.1% on a reported basis or 6.3% in constant currency. Our gross profit rate was 20.4%, compared to 20.6% in the third quarter of last year, a decrease of 20 basis points. The primary driver was 40 basis points of unfavorable impact from lower term fee and 20 basis points of higher employee-related costs. These impacts were partially offset by 40 basis points of continued improvement in structural business mix. SG&A expenses were down 1.2% year-over-year on a reported basis. Expenses for the third quarter of 2023, includes $15.4 million of charges related to our ongoing transformation efforts. So on an adjusted constant currency basis, expenses declined by 9.1% or $21 million in the quarter.
The reduction reflects the positive impact of our transformation efforts which are designed to reduce cost on a structural basis as well as lower performance based in incentive compensation. For the third quarter, on a reported basis, we produced breakeven earnings from operations. This compares to a loss of $21.4 million in the third quarter of 2022. As noted, our 2023 Q3 results include $15.4 million of charges, related to our transformation activities, so adjusted earnings from operations in Q3 of 2023 were $15.5 million. Our 2022 Q3 loss includes a $30.7 million goodwill impairment charge, resulting in adjusted earnings from operations in Q3 of 2022 of $9.5 billion, so on a like-for-like basis, 2023 earnings from operation increased by 60%.
Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter also improved at 2.3%, compared to 1.6% a year ago a 70 basis point improvement. Income tax benefit for the third quarter was $4.9 million consistent with our 2022 income tax benefit of $5 million. And finally reported earnings per share for the third quarter of 2023 was $0.18 per share, compared to a loss per share of $0.43 in 2022. Adjusted EPS for the third quarter of 2023, excluding the transformation-related charges net of tax was $0.50. And after adjusting for the 2022 goodwill impairment charge net of tax, Q3 2022 EPS was $0.25, so on a like-for-like basis, EPS in Q3 of 2023 doubled from the prior year. Now moving to the balance sheet as of the end of Q3, at the end of Q3 cash totaled $117 million compared to $154 million at the end of 2022.
And we ended the third quarter of 2023 with no debt consistent with substantially no debt at the end of 2022 with our $300 million in available capacity on our credit facilities and our cash balances as well as the outcome of our EMEA transaction we continue to have ample capital available to deploy in the near future. As of the end of Q3 accounts receivable was $1.4 billion and decreased 9% year-over-year reflecting a year-over-year decrease in revenue as well as a decrease in DSO. Global DSO was 63 days, up-to-date from year-end 2022, due primarily to the impact of seasonality in our education business. DSO is one day lower than the same period in 2022. For the third quarter of 2023, we generated $7 million of free cash flow and year-to-date free cash flow now totals $21 million.
For the quarter we have continued to maintain lower accounts receivable balances in line with our revenue trends and DSO improvement. A portion of those receivables are related to our MSP programs and are funded with supplier payables. So the lower net position has a limited impact on free cash flow generation. In the quarter, we completed the $50 million share repurchase program that we announced in November of last year, buying approximately 3 million shares during the program. Now I will move on to our expectations for the rest of 2023. We assume a continuation of the current market conditions, which as Peter noted are more challenging than we had anticipated a quarter ago. We now expect fourth quarter nominal revenue to be down 50 to 150 basis points year-over-year.
We expect our Q4 GP rate will be down 50 basis points year-over-year to about 19.8%, as continued softness in demand for full-time hiring compresses permanent placement fees. The lower Q4 GP rate also reflects the normal sequential trend due to the seasonality of our education business and continuation of the structural business mix improvement that is expected to keep our full year GP rate above 20%. We expect fourth quarter adjusted SG&A to be about 9% lower than the same period last year consistent with Q3 and better than our expectations that we shared a quarter ago. We reacted to the more challenging top line trends and accelerated our transformation efficiency actions. As a result, we expect adjusted EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter to be between 2.8% to 3%, reflecting the more challenging market conditions.
For additional perspective with the benefit of full year of expected transformation-related savings, the impact of the sale of our European staffing business, and our current top line expectations. We would expect to reach a normalized adjusted EBITDA margin in the range of 3.3% to 3.5%, as discussed three months ago. That is more than 100 basis points of improvement from our historical levels of adjusted EBITDA margin, all since we began the transformation journey earlier this year. And now, I’ll turn it back over to Peter for additional comments.
