Employment Services

The 30,745 employment services firms in the US offer a wide range of employment-related services and solutions, including temporary and contract staffing, permanent placement, recruiting, outsourcing and outplacement, training, and human resource consulting. The industry is organized along three distinct segments: temporary help services, employment placement agencies, and professional employer organizations.

Online Job Sites and AI

The proliferation of Internet job sites and the increasing incorporation of AI to screen candidates and do mundane administrative work has made it easier for companies to advertise openings and find applicants on their own.

Growth of Flexible Workforces

Companies are placing increased value on the ability to quickly adjust to market conditions.

Sep 23, 2026 - Recruitment Scams Flood the Online Job Market

• Job seekers face a growing wave of sophisticated recruitment scams that exploit both a difficult hiring market and the credibility of established job platforms, according to a "Wall Street Journal" report. Scammers use AI to create fake recruiter profiles, tailor bogus openings to individual candidates, and impersonate legitimate employers. Some schemes seek payment for résumé help or other services, while others collect Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and other personal information. Scammers can even hijack verified accounts or place fraudulent listings on legitimate company pages, making fake opportunities harder to spot. LinkedIn says it blocked nearly 90 million fake accounts before they went live in the second half of 2025, but scammers continually adapt to new safeguards. The problem is especially potent as job searches drag on: 27% of unemployed Americans had been looking for work for more than six months in August.
• Corporate America is taking another swing at middle management, with bosses who oversee only a handful of employees becoming prime targets for cuts. Uber plans to reduce its “micro-teams,” those with just one or two direct reports, by nearly half as part of a broader restructuring that will eliminate about 3,300 jobs and leave the company with 20% fewer managers. The trend extends well beyond Uber: Intel has cut its management layers from 12 to six, Google reduced managers overseeing small teams by 35% last year, and Coinbase is limiting the number of layers below senior leadership. Companies increasingly want managers to oversee larger teams while also doing more hands-on work themselves. That can leave remaining bosses stretched thin and employees with less access to supervisors, while also making management less appealing: Robert Half found 40% of Gen Z professionals want promotions that don’t require managing people.
• A large share of white-collar workers are finding that simply staying employed no longer means moving ahead. A study by the Burning Glass Institute and New York University found that roughly one in four professionals experiences a midcareer stall, going at least five years without a meaningful raise or promotion. The problem cuts across industries and has persisted even during strong labor markets, while today’s slower hiring and corporate efforts to trim management ranks are making advancement tougher. Early career momentum appears especially important: workers who later stalled averaged just 30% wage growth during their first decade, compared with 71% among those who continued progressing. The trend raises concerns about employee retention and engagement, particularly when organizations have fewer leadership positions available and employees see limited opportunities to build skills, take on broader responsibilities, or move into higher-paying roles.
• The US labor market is increasingly constrained by a shrinking labor pool and widening skills gap, making hiring alone an inadequate solution. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, while previously reported May and June gains were revised downward by 103,000 jobs. Gartner’s Jamie Kohn notes that falling labor force participation alongside declining unemployment indicates fewer people are available to work. Employers also face a skills mismatch: only about 3% of job postings currently list AI skills, according to Gartner, even as workers increasingly need capabilities to perform complex tasks and oversee AI output. Labor mobility is also weak; BLS data shows the quit rate at its lowest sustained level since 2020, while Gartner’s employee intent-to-stay index fell from 100 in Q1 2024 to 80 in Q1 2026, suggesting many workers are staying because of economic uncertainty rather than engagement.

Industry size & Structure

A typical employment services firm has about 255 employees and annual revenues of $18 million.

• The overall industry consists of about 30,745 firms with 7.9 million employees and generates around $556.1 billion in annual revenue.
• About 58% of firms have less than 10 employees.
• The top 4 firms account for over 25% of industry revenue. The largest employment services firms include Adecco, Kelly Services, Manpower, Spherion, and Kforce.
• Temp workers average 35 hours per week per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Services are provided to customers in all employment segments.
• With limited capital costs associated with start-up, there is little barrier to entry into this field.