Staffing agencies in California: 5,840 offices, 824,159 employees and the rules that make clients share the risk

This report is for California employers that use or are choosing an agency, job seekers comparing agencies, and B2B sellers covering the state. For a city, see the San Francisco and Bakersfield reports.

California staffing agencies by the numbers

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

Of the 1,901 placement and search establishments, 1,112 are employment placement agencies and 789 are executive search offices; the search offices report 5,516 employees and $814 million in payroll.

The placement and search payroll isn't shown because the Census Bureau flagged it as high-noise: the noise it adds to protect confidentiality changed it by 5% or more. The state payroll and average pay above include it, while the employee totals carry lower noise flags, so treat the payroll and average pay as approximate.

Why 5,840 offices report 824,159 employees

An average of 141 employees per office would be odd for any industry. Three things explain it.

• Temps are the agency's employees. The Census Bureau's definition of temporary help says the workers supplied are employees of the temp agency. Robert Half's 10-K puts it the same way: of the roughly 94,300 professionals it placed on assignment in 2025, "the substantial majority" were the company's legal employees while working on assignments.
• Payroll offices. The Census Bureau notes that employment services firms may pay many thousands of employees from a single payroll office and may publish them in a "statewide" category. In California, 350 statewide temp help establishments, assigned to no county, carry 526,544 employees: 73% of the state's temp help employment.
• One week in March. The headcount is a snapshot of the week of March 12, so it counts everyone on assignment that week.

The statewide records also mean metro figures add up to far fewer employees than the state.

Where they are

The six largest metros hold 4,736 of the 5,840 establishments, 81%. Los Angeles alone has 37%.

How big they are

In broader bands, 3,684 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 1,241 have 20 to 99 and 915 have 100 or more. Of the 75 with 1,000 or more, 68 are temp help.

These are establishments with paid employees, not companies; self-employed recruiters aren't counted, and professional employer organizations (NAICS 56133, 452 more establishments with 229,640 employees) are counted separately.

Public staffing companies headquartered in California

SEC company records list three listed companies in the staffing codes (SIC 7361 to 7363) with a California headquarters. Each figure is from the latest 10-K.

California rules for agencies and their clients

Worked example: when a client crosses both thresholds

Illustrative example. The company, headcounts and pay are invented; the thresholds are California's.

Valley Oak Foods (valleyoak.example) runs a Fresno plant with 80 direct employees and uses three agencies, which keep about 40 temps on site at any time. With turnover, 130 different agency workers passed through the plant last year.

Now suppose one agency has been paying 15 of its temps straight time for the 2 overtime hours each works a week, at an $18.00 pay rate. The unpaid premium is half the rate, $9.00 an hour: 15 × 2 × $9.00 = $270 a week, or $7,020 over 26 weeks, plus penalties. Under 2810.3, Valley Oak shares that liability. Audit agency payroll records each quarter, and require the agencies to deliver pay data well before the May filing.

Choosing an agency in California

1. Shortlist locally from the city reports, ClearlyRated's listings and the ASA member directory; California Staffing Professionals is the ASA's state chapter.
2. Check the entity on the Secretary of State's business search.
3. Get proof of workers' compensation and confirm it with the insurer, since you share liability if it lapses.
4. Write audit rights into the contract: payroll records on request, and the pay data you'll need for any 12999 report.
5. Price it line by line: pay rate, markup, overtime and conversion fee, then call two of the agency's clients.

Job seekers: a temp agency is paid by its client. If an agency asks you for a fee, it must have a bond on file with the Secretary of State.

Selling to California staffing agencies

California's rules give sellers a calendar. Pay data reports are due in May, so clients press their agencies for data in the first quarter, and agencies buy reporting and payroll tools ahead of it. Read each agency's postings to sort industrial from professional work, and map branches to their parent company before assigning territories. Bebop finds agencies that match a description, explains why each fits and drafts outreach. For territory work, see how to build a prospect list.

Subject: Pay data for [agency]'s clients before May

Hi [first name],

California clients with 100 or more of your workers in a year have to file a labor contractor pay data report, and the law says you have to give them the data.

If [agency] supplies [number] clients that size, that's [number] data requests landing at once in the spring. We produce each client's file from your payroll, in the state's format, in [time].

Worth a look before the requests start?

[Your name]

State sources

Next step: compare California with the second-largest staffing state in staffing agencies in Texas.