Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities.
Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities
Obviously a lot of the tone of this call is whether Q3’s results are really indicative of any change in your business. So to start with that, you mentioned that you saw a pretty good ramp from a slow start in January into February.
Now that March is completed, can you give us a little better feel for the ramp you saw in the quarter and what you’ve seen so far quarter-to-date in March, both in terms of activity, but equally if not more important, in terms of bookings or turnaround work you expect to do?
Philip J. Hawk
As I kind of alluded in some of my comments, we are one month into the fourth quarter and our activity levels were excellent. In March, they continue to ramp up as we projected they would, and our outlook for fourth quarter is very strong.
Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities
You are not basing your enthusiastic view about Q4 on work you hope to get, but literally work that’s essentially in hand for the most part in terms of turnaround work?
Philip J. Hawk
That’s correct. I would for all our listeners, just remind you that, when we are doing turnarounds, the actual size of the work for any individual or specific project is really not known until we actually get into the work. So with discoverables, it may expand, frequently does, or occasionally, it contracts.
So to say we have a precise forecast and we know to the last detail exactly what our revenues will be is not correct. But the overall activity level is very strong, the number of projects we are working in, the breadth of those projects is strong and we are optimistic.
Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities
You added roughly 100 or so technicians in the quarter. Is that correct?
Philip J. Hawk
That’s correct.
Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities
And just to think about margins, when you bring in 100 people like that, are there lingering inefficiencies as you try to train these people or is it a relatively quick process?
Philip J. Hawk
We are not bringing them in and expecting them to be expert lead technicians on day one. We do have a couple of week safety training and orientation program for people who are new to our industry before they can kind of reach helper status. As I look at our billed hours to total paid hours or kind of labor utilization level, they are comparable this year to what they were last year. So we are not seeing erosion of that due to either influx to technicians or our growth with those technicians.
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