Staffing agencies in Fort Worth: Tarrant County's big temp branches and how to work with them

This report is for people in Fort Worth and Tarrant County looking for work through an agency, employers choosing one, and B2B sellers who sell to staffing firms. Dallas County is covered separately in staffing agencies in Dallas.

Tarrant County staffing agencies in numbers

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

Big temp branches, modest pay

Temp help pays about $35,300 a year on average here, against about $46,700 in Dallas County's temp help. The 30 search offices are small, about seven people each, and report average pay of about $31,000, a fifth of the Dallas County search figure, so don't read them as a guide to recruiter pay.

Why the headcounts are so high: the Census definition of temporary help services says the people supplied "are employees of the temporary help services establishment." A branch that keeps 400 people working at client distribution centers reports 400 employees, though only a handful sit in its office.

In broader bands, 178 locations have 1 to 19 employees, 87 have 20 to 99 and 66 have 100 or more; the last figure is the total less the smaller bands, because the top two cells aren't published for the codes combined. The temp help row publishes its 500 to 999 cell: five branches. Its published cells cover all 253 temp locations, so none has 1,000 or more, and placement and search have none above 499.

Limits. County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, so a national firm's three Fort Worth branches count three times, and self-employed recruiters are left out. Employment is one week in March 2023, before the fall peak season. Professional employer organizations (18 more locations) are a separate code.

For job seekers: the rule to know when an assignment ends

Texas unemployment law has a clause written for temps. Under Labor Code section 207.045(h), a temporary employee of a temporary help firm who doesn't contact the firm for reassignment when an assignment ends is treated as having left work voluntarily without good cause, which can cost unemployment benefits. It only applies if the agency told you two things: that you must contact it at the end of each assignment, and that benefits may be denied if you don't. So when an assignment ends, call or message the agency, ask for the next one, and keep a record.

Other things worth knowing before you sign on:

• The agency is your employer. It pays you, withholds taxes and is responsible for your overtime after 40 hours in a workweek, even though you work at the client's site.
• Match the agency to the work. Warehouse and light industrial agencies, office and accounting agencies, and healthcare and IT staffing firms recruit for different jobs. ClearlyRated lists 93 Fort Worth agencies with ratings from workers and clients.
• Use the free public option too. Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County runs workforce centers with no-cost job search tools and workshops, plus hiring events.

For employers: choosing and checking an agency

Texas rules are light for most of these. The state licenses PEOs, not temp help (Labor Code 91.001 excludes temporary help from the PEO license), and in TDLR's October 2026 license data no PEO license record lists a Tarrant County business address, so a PEO serving Fort Worth is licensed from an address elsewhere. Day labor halls follow Labor Code Chapter 92, which lets cities of more than one million people set stricter standards. Fort Worth's July 2024 Census estimate is 1,008,106, but Texas statutes measure population by the most recent decennial census (Government Code 311.005), and its April 2020 estimates base, built on the 2020 census, is 918,923, so on that reading the power doesn't yet apply here.

For any agency: confirm the entity on the Texas Comptroller's franchise tax account status search (its open data file lists 57 active franchise taxpayers with "staffing" in the name and a Fort Worth address), get a workers' compensation certificate naming your company, and get pay rate, markup, overtime billing and conversion terms as separate lines.

Worked example: how many to order for a peak

Illustrative example. The company, show rate, attrition and rates are invented to show the arithmetic.

Sycamore Creek Fulfillment (sycamorecreek.example) runs a distribution center in north Fort Worth and needs 100 pickers working in week three of a 10-week peak. Its agency's records on similar orders: 85% of booked workers show on day one, and 5% of those who start leave each week. Each starter gets a paid 4-hour orientation at the $24.50 bill rate ($17.50 pay plus a 40% markup).

Ordering 100 and hoping leaves the site 23 short in week three. Two numbers drive the whole plan, so ask every agency for its show rate and weekly attrition on orders like yours, and compare them before you compare bill rates.

Selling to Fort Worth staffing agencies

Tarrant's 66 locations with 100 or more employees, and especially the five temp branches above 500, are where volume purchases happen: background checks and drug screening, safety training and protective equipment, workers' compensation, timekeeping and pay cards, and transport to outlying sites. The 178 small offices buy recruiting basics.

Start with the Comptroller's open data file filtered to Tarrant County cities, add the ASA directory and ClearlyRated listings, then read job posts to find the branches booking peak-season crews. Pitch tools that cut no-shows and early quits in late summer, before peak orders are placed. Checking which branches are booking peak crews is where the hours go; Bebop can find agencies matching that description and explain the fit for each. For list method, see how to build a prospect list.

Subject: Week-three headcount on your peak orders

Hi [first name],

I saw [agency] is hiring [number] pickers and packers for sites around [area] ahead of peak. On orders like that, the gap between workers booked and workers still there in week three is usually what clients notice.

We [what you do, e.g. send shift reminders and first-week check-ins by text] and report attendance to the branch daily.

Would it be useful to compare your show rate on the last peak with what we see?

[Your name]

Local sources

Next step: see how Houston's agencies and PEOs compare in staffing agencies in Houston.