Staffing agencies in Arizona: 1,080 locations statewide, where the big payrolls sit and who the employer is

This report covers Arizona as a whole, for employers and job seekers outside the big metros, analysts sizing the state, and B2B sellers planning a statewide territory. City detail is in staffing agencies in Tucson and staffing agencies in Phoenix.

Arizona staffing agencies by the numbers

US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, State of Arizona, NAICS 56131 (Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services) and 56132 (Temporary Help Services):

Temp help is 92% of the employees for a simple reason: the people a temp agency supplies are its own employees. The Census definition says so directly, "the individuals provided are employees of the temporary help services establishment," so a 3,000-person employee count at an agency is mostly people working at clients' warehouses, call centers and plants.

How big they are

For all staffing, 695 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 246 have 20 to 99 and 139 have 100 or more; the 139 is the total less the smaller bands, because the top classes aren't published for the two codes combined. Temp help publishes every class: 50 of its locations have 250 or more employees.

Where they are, and the statewide records

Rows marked "not reported (high-noise figure)" have published totals that the Census Bureau flagged as changed 5% or more by its confidentiality noise. The county rows come from the same 2023 county file and add to 1,065 of the state's 1,080.

The statewide row is the surprise. The Census Bureau puts employers "without a fixed location within a state (or of unknown county location)" in a statewide category, and notes that employment services firms may pay workers out of a single payroll office, published as statewide where that office sits. In Arizona, 74 temp help establishments are filed this way, with 22,953 employees, and they include all eight of the state's temp establishments with 1,000 or more employees. So the largest staffing "establishments" in Arizona are records without a fixed county, such as central payroll operations, not branches you can walk into.

Other limits. County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and leaves out self-employed recruiters. Employment is one week in March 2023. PEOs (NAICS 56133) are a separate code: 121 Arizona establishments with 81,469 employees, most of those employees in statewide records, which is more than the staffing agencies above.

Arizona rules that decide who the employer is

For job seekers, the practical effect is that a legitimate agency employs you, sets and pays your wage from its own account and reassigns you when an assignment ends. Don't pay a fee to be placed.

Worked example: turning 1,080 locations into a territory

Illustrative example. The seller and its targeting rule are invented; the counts are from County Business Patterns 2023.

Saguaro Shift Software (saguaroshift.example) sells timekeeping to temp agencies with 20 or more employees.

The 43 statewide records are worth more than their count: they're where multi-site firms run payroll for Arizona, so the buyer for timekeeping is a company-level operations or payroll leader, not a branch manager. Treat them as 43 company accounts and the 298 branches as the field. Many branches belong to the same national brands, so match branches to companies before you count accounts.

Selling to Arizona staffing agencies

Build the list from the ASA member directory, ClearlyRated's Arizona award winners and chamber directories in Phoenix and Tucson, then use job posts to separate light industrial and call center staffers from healthcare, IT and office specialists. Pitch payroll, timekeeping and compliance at the company level and screening, safety and recruiting at the branch. Matching 298 branches to their parent companies is the slow part; Bebop finds staffing firms that match a description and explains the fit. See how to build a prospect list for the steps.

Subject: Arizona payroll for [agency]'s [number] branches

Hi [first name],

[Agency] runs temp payroll for branches across Arizona from one office, and with clients inside and outside Tucson city limits, the minimum wage depends on the site.

We [what you do, e.g. apply each site's pay rules automatically and reconcile hours to client invoices before payroll runs].

Worth comparing one pay period's exceptions with what we'd flag?

[Your name]

Sources for names and rules

Next step: see how Arizona's largest metro compares in staffing agencies in Phoenix.