10 Best Temp Staffing Agencies in the US for 2026

Key takeaway: The 10 best temp staffing agencies in the US for 2026 are: Randstad, Adecco, Manpower, Kelly, Robert Half, Express Employment Professionals, Aerotek, PeopleReady, EmployBridge, and Spherion. The national giants win on branch coverage and compliance infrastructure; the franchise networks win on local speed. Pick by the roles you fill most often (light industrial, administrative, professional) and ask every agency for its markup, conversion fee, and fill rate in writing before signing.

Temporary staffing is the largest slice of the US staffing industry. The American Staffing Association reports that staffing companies employ more than 2 million temporary and contract workers in an average week, and place well over 10 million people in temporary or contract jobs over the course of a year (ASA Staffing Industry Statistics, 2025). Most of that volume runs through the agencies on this list.

The economics are simple but opaque. You pay the agency an hourly bill rate, the worker receives an hourly pay rate, and the gap (the markup) covers payroll taxes, workers' compensation, benefits, recruiting, and margin. Markups commonly run 30-60% over the pay rate for light industrial and administrative roles and higher for skilled or credentialed work. Add a conversion fee if you hire the worker permanently inside the agency's protection window, typically 90 to 180 days.

That structure makes temp agencies a different purchase from the search firms in our best recruiting firms guide. You are buying flexible labor and employer-of-record compliance, not a shortlist of executives. This list ranks the agencies that do that well at national scale in 2026.

How did we evaluate temp staffing agencies?

The 10 agencies at a glance

The 10 best temp staffing agencies

1. Randstad

Type: National staffing company (part of Randstad N.V.) Headquarters: Atlanta, GA (US headquarters) Best for: Multi-site employers that want one national partner across light industrial, administrative, and professional roles

Randstad is one of the largest staffing companies in the world and the biggest temp provider in many US metros. Its US business spans manufacturing and logistics, office and administrative, and professional lines, backed by a technology layer that lets high-volume clients post orders and track fill rates online. For an employer with plants or distribution centers in several states, Randstad's reach means one master agreement, one set of compliance standards, and one escalation path.

Strengths:

• Nationwide branch network plus virtual recruiting hubs
• Dedicated on-site programs for high-volume industrial clients
• Strong compliance and reporting infrastructure for enterprise buyers

Limitations:

• Local branches vary in responsiveness
• Enterprise pricing and process can feel heavy for a single small order

2. Adecco

Type: National staffing company (part of the Adecco Group) Headquarters: Jacksonville, FL (US headquarters) Best for: Light industrial, warehouse, and customer-service temp roles at scale

Adecco is the US flagship of the Adecco Group, one of the world's two largest staffing companies. In the US it concentrates on light industrial, logistics, call center, and administrative placements, with a large associate pool that lets it staff peak seasons for retailers and 3PLs. Its mobile app for associates speeds up onboarding and shift confirmation, which translates into faster fills for clients with recurring orders.

Strengths:

• Deep associate pools in warehouse and manufacturing markets
• Seasonal surge programs for retail and logistics peaks
• Global parent for employers that also need staffing abroad

Limitations:

• Less depth in specialized professional roles (handled by sister brands)
• Fill quality depends heavily on the local branch

3. Manpower

Type: National staffing brand (ManpowerGroup) Headquarters: Milwaukee, WI Best for: Manufacturing, skilled production, and administrative temp roles with a training component

Manpower is the staffing brand of ManpowerGroup, the company behind the annual Talent Shortage survey that found 74% of employers struggle to fill roles (ManpowerGroup, 2025). Its US operation is strongest in manufacturing and skilled production, where it pairs placement with upskilling programs (MyPath) that move associates from general labor into certified roles. That makes it a good partner for plants that struggle to find qualified operators.

Strengths:

• Upskilling programs that create candidates rather than just sourcing them
• Decades of manufacturing-client relationships
• Sister brands (Experis, Talent Solutions) for IT and RPO needs

Limitations:

• Smaller footprint in some Sun Belt metros than Randstad or Adecco
• Professional roles are routed to Experis rather than handled directly

4. Kelly

Type: Specialty staffing company Headquarters: Troy, MI Best for: Education, science, engineering, and office temp roles where credentials matter

Kelly invented the modern temp agency in 1946 and has since repositioned itself around specialty verticals: education (substitute teachers and paraprofessionals), science and clinical, engineering, and office professional. If your temporary need involves a credential, a lab, or a classroom, Kelly's screening is built for it in a way that general industrial agencies' processes are not.

Strengths:

• Largest substitute-teacher staffing program in the US
• Science, clinical, and engineering practices with credential verification
• Long enterprise tenure and mature compliance

Limitations:

• Exited much of its light industrial business, so it is not the first call for warehouse labor
• Premium pricing in specialty lines

5. Robert Half

Type: Professional staffing company Headquarters: Menlo Park, CA Best for: Temporary accounting, finance, administrative, legal, and technology professionals

Robert Half is the largest specialized professional staffing firm in the US and the only publicly traded company on this list that focuses almost entirely on white-collar temporary and contract work. Its finance and accounting, administrative and customer support, legal, marketing, and technology practices place interim professionals for month-end closes, leave coverage, system implementations, and project surges. The firm's salary guides are a widely used benchmark for setting pay rates.

Strengths:

• Deep bench of pre-screened accounting, finance, and administrative talent
• AI-assisted matching paired with local recruiter relationships
• Published salary data that makes rate conversations easier

Limitations:

• No light industrial or trades staffing
• Higher markups than general agencies, consistent with professional roles

6. Express Employment Professionals

Type: Franchised staffing network Headquarters: Oklahoma City, OK Best for: Small and mid-sized employers that want a locally owned branch with national backing

Express is a franchise system with more than 800 locally owned offices across the US and Canada. Each office is run by an owner who lives in the market, which produces fast, relationship-driven service for small manufacturers, distributors, and offices. The franchise model also means consistency in back-office compliance and payroll while the front end stays local.

Strengths:

• Owner-operated offices with strong local candidate networks
• Covers light industrial, administrative, and professional placements
• Responsive to small orders that national accounts teams deprioritize

Limitations:

• Service quality varies by franchisee
• Multi-state programs require coordinating several owners

7. Aerotek

Type: Industrial and skilled-trades staffing (Allegis Group) Headquarters: Hanover, MD Best for: Skilled trades, production, maintenance, and construction-adjacent temp roles

Aerotek is the industrial staffing arm of Allegis Group, the largest privately held staffing company in the US. It specializes in skilled production, maintenance technicians, welders, electricians, and other trades roles where a general labor pool will not do. Recruiters are organized by skill set rather than by branch, so a client in need of certified welders gets a recruiter who talks to welders all day.

Strengths:

• Skill-specialized recruiters for trades and technical production
• Large active database of credentialed industrial workers
• Safety and compliance programs built for manufacturing and energy sites

Limitations:

• Not the right fit for administrative or professional office roles
• Premium bill rates relative to general labor agencies

8. PeopleReady

Type: On-demand and day-labor staffing (TrueBlue) Headquarters: Tacoma, WA Best for: Same-day and short-notice general labor, events, hospitality, and skilled trades

PeopleReady, part of TrueBlue, is the largest on-demand labor provider in the US. Its JobStack app lets employers post a shift and have workers confirmed within hours, which is the use case for construction clean-up, event setup, warehouse surges, and hospitality back-of-house. A separate PeopleReady Skilled Trades division handles electricians, carpenters, and other licensed trades for contractors.

Strengths:

• Same-day fills through the JobStack app
• 600+ branches plus a national on-demand pool
• Skilled Trades division for licensed construction roles

Limitations:

• Built for short assignments, not long-term professional placements
• Day-labor model requires tight on-site supervision from the client

9. EmployBridge

Type: Light industrial staffing specialist Headquarters: Atlanta, GA Best for: High-volume warehouse, manufacturing, and logistics staffing programs

EmployBridge is the largest US staffing company focused exclusively on light industrial work, operating brands such as ResourceMFG, ProLogistix, and Select Staffing. It runs on-site programs at distribution centers and plants where it manages hundreds of associates, and its free Better WorkLife Academy training helps associates earn certifications that reduce turnover for clients. If your entire staffing problem is industrial, EmployBridge is built for it.

Strengths:

• Exclusive focus on light industrial and logistics
• On-site management programs for high-volume sites
• Free associate training that improves retention

Limitations:

• No professional, administrative, or clinical practices
• Less relevant for employers outside manufacturing and logistics

10. Spherion

Type: Franchised staffing network (Randstad) Headquarters: Atlanta, GA Best for: Mid-market employers in secondary markets that want local ownership with Randstad resources

Spherion is a franchise network owned by Randstad, with locally owned offices concentrated in mid-sized and smaller markets across the US. It covers light industrial, administrative, customer service, and some professional roles, and its owners can draw on Randstad's technology and compliance back end. Spherion's annual Emerging Workforce Study is a useful read on temp-worker expectations.

Strengths:

• Local ownership in markets the national brands serve thinly
• Randstad-backed payroll, compliance, and technology
• Balanced mix of industrial and office placements

Limitations:

• Fewer offices in major coastal metros
• Service consistency varies across franchisees

Temp agency or in-house recruiting?

Temp agencies make sense when the work is genuinely temporary, when you need an employer of record for compliance reasons, or when you lack the recruiting capacity to fill high-volume hourly roles yourself. The markup buys speed and risk transfer. The trade-off is cost: a 45% markup on a $20 hourly worker is $9 an hour, or roughly $18,700 a year per full-time-equivalent, which is why many employers convert long-running temp positions into direct hires.

For permanent salaried roles, the math usually favors building your own pipeline. SHRM's benchmark puts the average cost per hire at $4,700, and our cost-per-hire benchmarks show how much of that is recruiter time spent sourcing. That is where AI sourcing changes the equation. Noon runs autonomous sourcing agents that find and screen candidates across the open web against your actual requirements, then run personalized email and SMS outreach, so a lean team can fill professional roles without an agency fee. It is one flat plan with unlimited roles and seats (see pricing), which makes it a complement to the agencies above: use them for hourly and temporary labor, and an AI sourcer for the salaried roles you would otherwise pay a placement fee on. Our AI agent versus recruiting agency comparison walks through when each wins.

How to negotiate with a temp staffing agency

Ask for the pay rate and bill rate separately so the markup is visible. Request the conversion fee schedule (many agencies drop it to zero after 520 hours worked). Ask for fill rate and time-to-fill data from a comparable client. Confirm who carries workers' compensation and how injuries are reported. Finally, if you run a staffing operation yourself, our guides to staffing agency software and staffing CRM platforms cover the systems these agencies run on.

FAQ

How much do temp staffing agencies charge? Agencies bill a markup on the worker's hourly pay rate, typically 30-60% for light industrial and administrative roles and higher for skilled or professional work. A $20 pay rate at a 45% markup bills at $29 an hour. Conversion fees for hiring a temp permanently usually run 15-25% of annual salary, often reduced or waived after a set number of hours.

What is the difference between temp, temp-to-hire, and contract staffing? Temp assignments have a defined end date and the agency remains the employer. Temp-to-hire starts as a temp assignment with the intent to convert after a trial period. Contract staffing usually refers to longer professional engagements (IT, finance, engineering) billed at higher rates, often through firms like Robert Half or Aerotek rather than general labor agencies.

Which temp agency is best for warehouse and manufacturing work? EmployBridge, Adecco, Randstad, and Aerotek have the deepest industrial pools. EmployBridge is the only one focused exclusively on light industrial; Aerotek is strongest for skilled trades and technical production.

Which temp agency is best for office and professional roles? Robert Half for accounting, finance, legal, and administrative professionals; Kelly for education, science, and engineering; Randstad and Express for general administrative support.

Can a temp agency replace a recruiter for salaried hires? Rarely. Temp agencies are built for hourly and interim work. For permanent professional hires, use a search firm, an in-house recruiter, or an AI sourcing platform, depending on volume and seniority.