The closure of the Shanghai ports in the second quarter of 2022 reduced the volume of products shipped to us and our international customers from our Chinese manufactures in the second quarter. Consequently, these deliveries were delayed until the third quarter and represented approximately 34% of third quarter international sales.
Higher freight costs have continued through the third quarter of 2022. The increase in freight costs has significantly impacted our cost of manufactured product, and we expect this trend to continue. These cost increases are not unique to our business, but the fact that a substantial percent of our prior period sales were related to orders from the U.S. government with reimbursed freight costs will affect comparability of 2022 costs and margins to prior periods. Other factors that could affect our unit costs include increases in tariffs, supplier cost increases, and changing production volumes. Increases in costs may not be recoverable through price increases of our products.
Other factors which could have a material impact on our business include COVID-19 booster shot recommendations, flu shot campaigns, and inefficient domestic distribution networks. We believe that other viruses aside from COVID-19 have the potential to impact future sales, including, but not limited to, a potentially strong flu virus this year. COVID-19 booster shots have been recommended to the public, but we believe that many facilities still have excess inventory of vaccination materials on hand, including syringes.
The expansion of our existing administrative offices by 14,000 square feet at a cost of $5.8 million is expected to be completed in late November 2022.
As detailed in Note 4 to the financial statements, we held $26.3 million in equity securities as of September 30, 2022, which represented 28.7% of our current assets. Such amount includes unrealized losses on investments, as well as an additional $2.0 million cash investment during the first quarter of 2022 and $12 million during the second quarter of 2022. We continually monitor our invested balances.
In response to, among other factors, the global COVID-19 pandemic, our delivery orders from the U.S. government, and the TIA, employee headcount and related salary and benefits costs increased significantly during 2020 and 2021. In June 2022, we reduced our workforce by approximately 16% as a result of the substantial completion of our facility expansion efforts and the completion of U.S. government orders to provide products for COVID-19 vaccination efforts. As of September 30, 2022, the Company employed approximately 204 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees. Compensation costs decreased 6.4%. As a result of our completion of the original U.S. government delivery orders and the progression of the TIA, we continue to monitor our current level of operating expenses, including the overall impact of our staffing structure.
Effective June 4, 2021, we entered into a repurchase plan (the “Plan”) for the purchase of up to $10 million of our Common Stock. Under the Plan, open market purchases of our Common Stock commenced June 18, 2021 and 1,087,145 shares were purchased through the Plan’s termination on April 14, 2022 for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 million. We terminated the plan because our stock price appeared not to be correlated with our economic performance.
Historically, unit sales have increased during the flu season. Seasonal trends in 2020 and 2021 were less pronounced due to demand related to the COVID-19 vaccine. With the completion of our delivery orders from the U.S. government, flu season orders may have a more pronounced effect on 2022 revenues.
Product purchases from our Chinese manufacturers have enabled us to increase manufacturing capacity with little capital outlay and have provided a competitive manufacturing cost. In the third quarter of 2022, our Chinese manufacturers produced approximately 94% of our products. In the event that we become unable to purchase products from our Chinese manufacturers, we may need to find an alternate manufacturer for the blood collection set, IV catheter, Patient Safe® syringe, 0.5mL insulin syringe, 0.5mL autodisable syringe, and 2mL, 5mL, and 10mL syringes and we would increase domestic production for the 1mL and 3mL syringes and EasyPoint® needles.
In 1995, we entered into a license agreement with Thomas J. Shaw for the exclusive right to manufacture, market, and distribute products utilizing his patented automated retraction technology and other patented technology. This technology is the subject of various patents and patent applications owned by Mr. Shaw. The license agreement generally