Staffing agencies in Jersey City: Hudson County's market and a temp worker's rights shift by shift

This page is for people looking for temp or permanent work through an agency in Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne or elsewhere in Hudson County; for employers choosing one; and for B2B sellers whose customers are staffing firms.

Hudson County staffing agencies in Census data

US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, for Hudson County, New Jersey, NAICS 56131 (Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services) and 56132 (Temporary Help Services):

The Census Bureau published the executive search figures but flagged them as high-noise: the noise it adds for confidentiality changed them by 5% or more.

Why 92 agencies employ 4,543 people

A temp agency is the employer of the people it places, so temps on assignment are counted at the agency's branch. That's how 64 branches carry 3,805 employees, about 59 each, at an average pay of about $45,000. Placement agencies place people on the client's payroll, yet Hudson's 23 average about 31 employees, large for a recruiting business.

With few locations, the Census Bureau doesn't publish most size classes for the combined codes. The temp help row is more complete: 9 branches have 20 to 49 employees, 12 have 50 to 99, 6 have 100 to 249 and 3 have 250 to 499.

These are establishments with paid employees, not companies. A national agency with branches in Jersey City and Secaucus counts twice, and self-employed recruiters aren't counted. Professional employer organizations are separate (6 locations). No SEC-registered listed staffing company has its business address in the county; the state's listed firms are covered in the New Jersey staffing report.

What kind of agency you're dealing with

New Jersey's Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights covers temps placed in "designated classification placements," defined by federal occupation codes: food preparation and serving, production, construction laborers and helpers, transportation and material moving, personal care and service, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, other protective service workers, and installation, maintenance and repair.

Your rights on each assignment

For covered jobs, the New Jersey Department of Labor lists these rights:

• A written assignment notice when you're sent out, with the client's name, the pay, the work, any equipment needed, transport terms and your earned sick leave rights, in a language you understand.
• 48 hours' notice of a schedule, shift or location change on a multi-day assignment, when possible.
• Show-up pay: at least 4 hours at the agreed rate if there's no work at the scheduled assignment, and at least 2 hours at the original rate, plus hours worked at the new location, if the worksite changes during the shift.
• No fees for transportation, check cashing, consumer reports, criminal background checks or drug tests. You can't be required to use the agency's transport.
• Equipment, clothing and meals at cost, with no profit for the agency, and you decide whether to buy a meal.
• Pay comparable with the client's employees doing substantially similar work: at least their average rate of pay and average cost of benefits, or the cash equivalent.
• A detailed pay stub showing the client, hours, rate, deductions, the total the agency charged the client for your work, and the maximum fee the agency can charge the client to hire you directly.
• The right to take a permanent job with the client; the agency can charge the client a placement fee, never you.

All temps, covered or not, get the state minimum wage ($15.92 an hour in 2026, $16.48 from 1 January 2027), overtime after 40 hours and up to 40 hours of earned sick leave a year.

Worked example: a week with a cancelled and a moved shift

Illustrative example. The worker, agency and pay rate are invented; the minimums are those NJDOL lists.

Andre is placed by a Jersey City agency as a warehouse temp at $17.00 an hour, eight hours a day.

The rules add $102.00 to his week. If he isn't placed at all on a day he came in, he can ask the agency for a signed confirmation that he sought work.

How employers should vet a Hudson County agency

1. Classify the work. If it's a designated classification, the agency must be certified by the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs; ask for proof.
2. Check the entity in New Jersey's business records service.
3. Get certificates for workers' compensation and general liability naming your company.
4. Plan for your own duties: on a single-day assignment you must give the temp a work verification form at the end of the day, or face a $500 fine per violation.
5. Share comparator pay data so the agency can set rates that match your employees.
6. Read ratings on ClearlyRated and call two clients.

Selling to Hudson County staffing agencies

Temp branches placing covered jobs carry a heavy paperwork load: assignment notices in workers' languages, detailed pay stubs, single-day verification forms and six years of records. That makes forms, translation, payroll and records tools an obvious fit, alongside the usual screening and timekeeping.

With 92 locations, research each account before you call. Bebop researches each agency and writes the angle to open with; for list-building method, see how to build a prospect list.

Subject: Assignment notices in [language]

Hi [first name],

[Agency] dispatches [role] temps to sites around [town], and each one needs an assignment notice in a language they understand under New Jersey's temp law.

Our [service] produces the notice and the pay stub fields in [languages] from your dispatch data, and keeps the six-year record for you.

Could I show you one from last week's dispatch?

[Your name]

Local sources

Next step: see the statewide figures and the fee cap rules in the report on staffing agencies in New Jersey.