Staffing agencies in New Jersey: 1,645 locations and what the Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights changes

This report is for New Jersey employers using or choosing a staffing agency, temp workers who want to know their rights, and B2B sellers whose customers are staffing firms.

New Jersey staffing agencies in Census data

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

The industry split is from the Census Bureau's 2023 state file. An average of 86 employees per location is the temps: a temp agency employs the people it places, and the Census definition says those workers "are employees of the temporary help services establishment." Temp help holds 93% of the state's staffing employees, and the size classes show how big the payrolls get: 24 temp help locations have 500 to 999 employees and 22 have 1,000 or more.

Size and where they are

That's 1,087 locations with 1 to 19 employees, 299 with 20 to 99 and 259 with 100 or more, the last being the total less the smaller bands. The two unpublished classes hold 48 locations: the 46 temp help locations above and two placement or search offices whose class isn't published.

The county file adds something the state total hides:

The Census Bureau puts employers "without a fixed location within a state (or of unknown county location)" in a statewide classification. In New Jersey, 131 such staffing establishments report 83,903 employees, about 640 each and 59% of the industry's headcount, and 81,587 of those employees are in temp help, whose workers are spread across client sites. Middlesex County leads the counties with 264 locations. The county file accounts for 1,641 of the state's 1,645 establishments; the next largest counties are Monmouth (89), Essex (85) and Union (79).

Limits. County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and excludes the self-employed. Professional employer organizations are a separate code (NAICS 561330) and are big here, 176 locations with 90,416 employees, but aren't in these totals. Employment is the week of March 12, 2023.

The Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights

New Jersey's Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights (N.J.S.A. 34:8D-1 and following) took effect in two stages: notice and anti-retaliation provisions on 7 May 2023, everything else on 5 August 2023. The Department of Labor's rules, N.J.A.C. 12:72, took effect on 16 September 2024. The heaviest rules apply to designated classification placements: temps assigned to work in food preparation and serving, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, personal care and service, installation, maintenance and repair, production, transportation and material moving, construction laborer and helper jobs, and other protective service roles.

Separately, every temporary help service firm must register annually with the Division of Consumer Affairs (N.J.A.C. 13:45B-12.2), and PEOs register annually with the Department of Labor's Division of Employer Accounts. The Department of Labor can fine an agency up to $5,000 per violation of the pay and fee rules. New Jersey's minimum wage is $15.92 in 2026, or $15.23 for employers with fewer than six employees and for seasonal work, according to the US Department of Labor.

Worked example: the conversion fee cap

Illustrative example. The company and rates are invented; the cap formula is from N.J.S.A. 34:8D-7.a(1) and N.J.A.C. 12:72-6.2, simplified.

Raritan Cold Storage (raritancold.example) in Middlesex County wants to hire a forklift operator it has used through an agency for 40 working days. The agency bills $27.00 an hour and pays $20.00, with $1.00 an hour in benefits, so its daily commission over an 8-hour day is $48.00 ($216.00 billed less $160.00 wages and $8.00 benefits).

The cap applies to designated classification placements, so a forklift operator is covered and an accountant isn't. Ask agencies to show their conversion schedule against the cap before you sign.

How to choose and vet a New Jersey agency

1. Classify the work. Is the job in a designated classification? If so, the equal pay, certification and fee cap rules apply.
2. Ask for proof of registration and certification with the Division of Consumer Affairs, and the bond for designated placements.
3. Prepare your comparator data. You'll need the average pay and benefits cost of your own employees in the same work, and you share liability if the temp is underpaid.
4. Get the price in parts: pay rate, benefits or cash equivalent, markup, overtime and the conversion schedule.
5. Check insurance certificates for workers' compensation and general liability.

For office, IT, healthcare and engineering contract roles, direct hire and executive search, the equal pay rule doesn't apply, so compare fees and guarantees as you would anywhere.

New Jersey's public staffing companies

Two SEC-registered, listed companies in the staffing industry codes have headquarters in New Jersey, both confirmed on the cover of their latest 10-K.

Circle8 Group filed its 2025 10-K under its former name, Atlantic International Corp. (ticker ATLN); revenue fell 1.5% from $442.6 million. RCM's revenue rose 14.7%, or $41.0 million.

Selling to New Jersey staffing agencies

The Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights made compliance a buying reason: agencies making designated placements need multilingual assignment notices, itemized pay statements, comparator pay calculations for each client and a surety bond. The buyers are the operations, payroll and compliance leads at the 259 locations with 100 or more employees, plus the large statewide employers. Smaller offices, 1,087 of them with fewer than 20 employees, buy job boards and applicant tracking and decide quickly.

Build the list from the New Jersey Staffing Alliance member directory and the American Staffing Association directory, then sort by the roles each firm advertises: light industrial firms in Middlesex and Mercer counties face the full law, IT and search firms in Bergen and Morris face little of it. Bebop can find the agencies that fit a description like light industrial firms in Middlesex County and research what each one is hiring for. For the warehouses behind the demand, see trucking companies in New Jersey.

Subject: Comparator pay for [agency]'s designated placements

Hi [first name],

I saw [agency] is placing [number] warehouse and production temps at sites in [county]. Under the Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights, each of those placements needs a pay rate checked against the client's own average pay and benefits, and the client shares the liability.

We collect comparator data from your clients and calculate the minimum rate for each placement, with a record you can show them.

Would it help to run it on one client this month?

[Your name]

Sources for names and checks

Next step: compare a state with lighter rules in the report on staffing agencies in Connecticut.