Staffing agencies in Virginia: 1,182 locations, three very different regions and the rules to check

This report is for Virginia employers choosing an agency, job seekers comparing them, and B2B sellers planning how to cover the state's staffing firms. For the capital region in detail, see staffing agencies in Richmond.

Virginia staffing agencies in Census data

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

Reading the employee count

A temp agency employs the people it places, so its temps at client sites are counted at the agency. That alone makes temp help 90% of the jobs. A second effect is geographic: Census says employment services firms that pay many workers from one payroll office may be published in a "statewide" category. Virginia's county file has 65 temp help establishments with no fixed county, employing 24,995 people, about 385 each. They include 7 establishments with 500 to 999 employees and 9 with 1,000 or more, every one of the state's 1,000-plus temp establishments. Their workers are spread across counties, so county figures understate where temps actually work.

Professional employer organizations are a separate industry with 76 locations and 13,592 employees.

Size

In broader bands, 700 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 310 have 20 to 99 and 172 have 100 or more; the 172 is the total less the smaller bands, because the Census Bureau doesn't publish the two top classes for the combined codes. The temp help row has 11 establishments with 500 to 999 employees and 9 with 1,000 or more; two placement locations sit in the unpublished classes. All counts are establishments with paid employees, not companies, and exclude self-employed recruiters.

Three Virginias: temp help by place

The same industry code covers very different work. A Fairfax County temp help payroll averaging about $92,300 a head suggests professional contracting; Virginia Beach and Norfolk, at about $31,000 to $33,000, suggest hourly assignments, some of them part year. Treat these as signals, not job data: County Business Patterns doesn't classify temps by occupation.

The public staffing company headquartered here

ASGN Incorporated, an IT consulting and staffing company, gives its principal executive offices as 4400 Cox Road, Glen Allen, in its 10-K for 2025, with revenue of $3,980.4 million. SEC records show it renamed itself Everforth Inc in April 2026. The Richmond report has the detail.

Virginia rules to check

Kinds of agency

• IT and professional contract firms, placing developers, analysts, engineers and accountants by the hour.
• Light industrial and commercial temp branches, for warehouse, manufacturing, call center and hospitality shifts.
• Healthcare staffing, by shift or contract.
• Direct hire placement and executive search, paid a fee per hire.
• PEOs, which run payroll and benefits for your existing staff and must be registered.

How to vet a Virginia agency

1. Check the entity with the State Corporation Commission.
2. Ask for its workers' compensation certificate naming you, and for a PEO, its Commission registration.
3. Ask how it pays its people: W-2 employees of the agency, or independent contractors.
4. Get the pay rate, markup, overtime and conversion terms in writing.
5. Call two references with similar roles in your region.

If you're looking for work

Agencies are paid by the employers they staff, so don't pay to register. If a staffing firm offers to pay you as an independent contractor, ask why: Virginia law presumes that someone paid for services is an employee in a misclassification suit, and gives a misclassified worker three years to bring one.

Worked example: splitting Virginia into sales territories

Illustrative example. The vendor and the three-rep plan are invented; the counts are from the County Business Patterns 2023 county file, both staffing codes.

A vendor selling to staffing firms has three reps for Virginia. The county file shows 1,125 staffing locations (it doesn't add exactly to the state file's 1,182).

Rep one takes Northern Virginia (430). Rep two takes Richmond plus the rest of the state (431), a wide territory of small accounts best worked by phone. Rep three takes Hampton Roads plus the statewide payroll offices (264): fewer locations, but the statewide temp offices average about 385 employees each, so the accounts are among the largest in the state.

Selling to Virginia staffing agencies

IT and professional firms buy candidate data, assessments, background checks and contractor payroll; industrial branches buy screening, timekeeping and safety training. At volume, Bebop finds firms matching a description and explains why each fits. See how to build a prospect list for the method.

Subject: Contractors on 1099 in Virginia

Hi [first name],

Virginia presumes a paid worker is an employee in a misclassification suit unless IRS guidelines say otherwise, and gives workers three years to sue.

If [firm] pays some consultants on a 1099, our [service] moves them to W-2 payroll with benefits in about [time], without changing their bill rates to your clients.

Worth a short call to see which of your contractors it would cover?

[Your name]

State sources

Next step: see the capital region in detail in the report on staffing agencies in Richmond.