v2.4.0.6

Business Segments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Business Segments

11. Business Segments.

The Company has four reportable segments: Life Sciences, Healthcare, Physician and IT and Engineering. The Life Sciences segment provides contract, contract-to-permanent and direct placement services of laboratory and scientific professionals to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, medical device, personal care, chemical and environmental industries. These contract staffing specialties include chemists, clinical research associates, clinical lab assistants, engineers, biologists, biochemists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, food scientists, regulatory affairs specialists, lab assistants and other skilled scientific professionals.

The Healthcare segment includes the combined results of the Nurse Travel and Allied Healthcare lines of business. The lines of business have been aggregated into the Healthcare segment based on similar economic characteristics, end-market customers and management personnel. The Healthcare segment provides contract, contract-to-permanent and direct placement of professionals from a number of healthcare, medical financial and allied occupations. These contract staffing specialties include nurses, specialty nurses, respiratory therapists, surgical technicians, imaging technicians, x-ray technicians, medical technologists, phlebotomists, coders, billers, claims processors and collections staff.

The Physician segment provides contract and direct placement physicians to healthcare organizations. The Physician segment works with nearly all medical specialties, placing locum tenens physicians in hospitals, community-based practices, and federal, state and local facilities.

The IT and Engineering segment provides high-end contract and direct placement services of information technology and engineering professionals with expertise in specialized information technology; software and hardware engineering; and mechanical, electrical, validation and telecommunications engineering fields.

The Company's management evaluates the performance of each segment primarily based on revenues, gross profit and operating income. The information in the following table is derived directly from the segments' internal financial reporting used for corporate management purposes.

The following table represents revenues, gross profit and operating income by reportable segment (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010			2009
Revenues:
Life Sciences	$     155,324		$     109,495			$     93,664
Healthcare	94,598		76,287			97,137
Physician	80,617		73,595			87,719
IT and Engineering	266,742		178,688			138,093
Total Revenues	$     597,281		$     438,065			$   416,613
Gross Profit:
Life Sciences	$       52,643		$       37,776			$     30,470
Healthcare	26,637		23,058			27,329
Physician	25,858		23,847			28,545
IT and Engineering	94,967		64,775			50,024
Total Gross Profit	$     200,105		$     149,456			$   136,368
Operating Income (Loss):
Life Sciences	$       10,727		$         5,305			$       6,176
Healthcare	(3,491)		(20,998)			(3,074)
Physician	5,347		5,010			8,214
IT and Engineering	31,816		13,910			3,911
Total Operating Income	$       44,399		$         3,227			$     15,227

The Company does not report Life Sciences and Healthcare segments' total assets separately as the operations are largely centralized. The following table represents total assets as allocated by reportable segment (in thousands):

	December 31, 2011		December 31, 2010		December 31, 2009
Total Assets:
Life Sciences and Healthcare	$                107,915		$                74,979		$                78,645
Physician	83,940		63,908		69,912
IT and Engineering	218,810		202,229		194,905
Total Assets	$              410,665		$              341,116		$              343,462

The Company does not report all assets by segment for all reportable segments. The following table represents identifiable assets by reportable segment (in thousands):

	December 31, 2011		December 31, 2010		December 31, 2009
Gross Accounts Receivable:
Life Sciences	$                21,727		$                14,107		$                10,548
Healthcare	11,568		9,628		9,722
Physician	15,749		10,233		12,453
IT and Engineering	47,658		30,725		19,399
Total Gross Accounts Receivable	$                96,702		$                64,693		$                52,122

The Company operates internationally, with operations in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The following table represents revenues by geographic location (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Revenues:
Domestic	$    529,150		$    407,317		$    393,846
Foreign	68,131		30,748		22,767
Total Revenues	$    597,281		$    438,065		$    416,613

The following table represents long-lived assets by geographic location (in thousands):

	December 31, 2011		December 31, 2010		December 31, 2009
Long-lived Assets:
Domestic	$                19,078		$                19,826		$               20,364
Foreign	1,033		754		569
Total Long-lived Assets	$                20,111		$                20,580		$               20,993

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- Definition

This element may be used to capture the complete disclosure of reporting segments including data and tables. Reportable segments include those that meet any of the following quantitative thresholds a) it's reported revenue, including sales to external customers and intersegment sales or transfers is 10% or more of the combined revenue, internal and external, of all operating segments b) the absolute amount of its reported profit or loss is 10 percent or more of the greater, in absolute amount of 1) the combined reported profit of all operating segments that did not report a loss or 2) the combined reported loss of all operating segments that did report a loss c) its assets are 10 percent or more of the combined assets of all operating segments.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher FASB

-Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS)

-Number 131

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