And that’s really the evolution that we’ve had between the last-mile delivery capability that we have in our countries, also augmenting that centralized delivery capabilities in all geos, be that from Latin America, in India, and in the U.S. and in Europe, making sure that we have excess delivery capabilities centrally so that we can flex those first and be able to adjust to the demand in a very dynamic way, which, of course, also helps us as we ramp up for a coming rebound when that occurs. So that is sort of how we’re thinking about our physical footprint right now.
Jasper Bibb: Thanks for that. And then just had a quick one on preliminary expectations for the tax rate in ’24. I guess, the fourth quarter is going to be a bit higher at 32.5%, but you also mentioned some CVAE benefit next year. So, on a blended basis, would that imply about 32% for ’24, or would that be too high?
Jack McGinnis: Yeah. No, Jasper. I think, it’s a fair question. It’s a little hard to say at this time for the full year of ’24 because it’s going to be heavily driven by the mix of earnings from the countries. But what I would say is you’re absolutely right, the CVAE will be an improvement in — all things being considered equal, will be an improvement in a reduction in the rate somewhere, as we said, to the tune of about 35 basis points. We guided to the 32.5% in the fourth quarter. For now, if you wanted to apply that to that 32.5% and say it’s going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 32%, as of right now, I think that’s a reasonable estimate. I’ll certainly give an update on that at year-end. I’ll give our updated view on whether that should change for estimate purposes. But I think for now, using the fourth quarter rate reduced somewhat is reasonable. Thanks.
Jasper Bibb: Fair enough. Thanks for taking the questions, guys.
Jonas Prising: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Stephanie Moore: Hi, good morning. Thank you. I wanted to touch on a little bit — I’m just kind of parse through everything that was said on — in the Q&A in particular. And I think apart from France, you are calling for a bit of stability in the fourth quarter, particularly in the U.S., called UK a little bit. Given you’ve been, I guess, seeing the slowdown for almost a year, I guess, 4Q to 4Q, are you hearing through any of your clients that think maybe the worst is behind us? Or are they kind of talking about the potential that there could be another step-down? Or could you start to see trends improve from here? I’m just trying to triangulate what now our year-over-year comp, seasonality, which I guess, it sounds like you’re not really seeing 3Q to 4Q and then just the underlying macro trends. So, any help about — help you’re hearing from clients in terms of kind of when we should start to see any change maybe 4Q, first quarter or anything like that? Thanks.
Jonas Prising: The level of the declines that we’ve seen, Stephanie, and in our conversations with clients, really goes to answer it in the way that they don’t know. And they don’t know how long this will take, and they are uncertain, and that’s why I think they’re maintaining their own workforces, but they’re really flexing this fluctuation and slowing demand through our industry. So, just along the prepared remarks that we mentioned on our — the sentiment that we hear when we speak with our clients, they still say, look, this is still manageable. Thank you for helping us navigate through this environment. We see some slowing demand, which we’re adjusting to and primarily with your help. But as to the outlook, we have great plans, we need to drive transformation forward.
We have a lot of energy transition-related activities in manufacturing and other industries. We have transformation projects related to technology. All of those things are still things we need to do, but right now, we’re going to slow them down or pause them and that is really the sentiment that we get from our clients right now, which is not unusual when you think about where we are and everything that you read about. So, it is still for them a manageable environment and you can tell by seeing what they’re doing with their own workforce. They’re holding on to their own workforce by and large, and they’re flexing up and down with our workforce. And you can see the sequentially — sequential stability that we talked about both from the U.S. and in some areas also in Europe as a positive sign, as just as Jack said, some of that is, of course, maybe missing the seasonal uptick that we’re getting.
But on the whole, they remain optimistic, but uncertain on when they would need to accelerate their acquisition of talent to a larger degree. And for now, they’re a little bit in a waiting pattern to get some further clarity. That’s how I describe this, if that is of any help.
Stephanie Moore: No, actually, that’s super helpful, and I really appreciate the color. Maybe just as a — not a follow-up, my second, can you talk a little bit about the color you’re seeing in Asia Pacific? In the Middle East, or at least Asia Pacific, you called out, continues to be relatively resilient. So, if you could just provide a bit more there, that would be helpful. Thanks for all the color.
Jonas Prising: Yeah, Stephanie. Both of the regions, Asia Pac and Latin America are seeing very good trends. And especially in Asia Pac, we’ve talked about Japan being a very strong operation. This will be our 35th consecutive quarter of growth. We’re performing very well in Japan. And many of the other countries in the regions are also performing well. So, they are still holding up, and it really speaks to the strength of our geographic diversification. So, not only a brand diversification, but also geo diversification in times like this can be very helpful, because we see that business continuing to move forward. And there they are clearly benefiting still from the overall impact of growing — demographics still being very instrumental in the global supply chain. And that — for now, at least, that is what we’re seeing, and that’s what we’re hearing from those two regions. So it’s very — it’s good for us to see that progression.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan. Your line is open.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, good morning. This is Stephanie stepping in for Andrew. I heard your comment on how you’re centralizing the finance and technology systems. Can you give us an update on where you stand in rolling out your front office PowerSuite system?
Jack McGinnis: Sure, Stephanie. I’d say, as Jonas said, on the front office in terms of PowerSuite, we’re in very, very good shape. That’s been a multiyear journey where we’re towards the end of that with 75% of our businesses being on the new front office through the end of this year. So we’re very pleased about that and doing a lot of work as we speak to your point, on the back office, which is global technology and finance platforms, and making very good progress. So, we have a cloud-enabled industry-leading back-office platform. We’re live in five countries. We’re in flight and many more. Through the second half of 2024, I believe we’ll have over 50% of our revenues on the new cloud-enabled back office. And that’s quite significant for us, because what we’re also doing at the same time is now we have the infrastructure to do more and more standardization and centralization.
