How to get clients for a staffing agency: find the local employers that hire most

To get clients for a staffing agency, pick one sector you can fill well, list every employer in that sector within commuting distance of your candidates, and contact the manager who runs the shift with a specific offer: covering a busy season, a weekend shift, or a hard-to-fill role. Federal data tells you where to look. Accommodation and food services hires at the highest rate of any major US industry, and industrial work is the largest share of staffing jobs. Google Maps then gives you every warehouse, plant, clinic, hotel and restaurant in your area, with a phone number and website for each.

Which local employers hire the most?#

Employers that hire constantly are the ones that need agencies. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics measures this in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The hires rate is the number of hires in a month as a share of employment.

Figures are seasonally adjusted and preliminary. Two notes: professional and business services includes staffing firms themselves, so part of that number is your competitors; and health care hires at a lower rate but in large numbers, with roles that are hard to fill.

Which sectors use staffing agencies most?#

Industrial work is the largest share of staffing jobs. The American Staffing Association (ASA) reports that US staffing firms employed nearly 2.0 million temporary and contract workers in an average week of 2025 and hired 9.5 million over the year. By sector:

Put the two tables together and the local targets are clear: industrial sites for volume, hospitality for constant turnover, and healthcare for hard-to-fill roles.

How do I find every employer in my area?#

Search Google Maps by category, one category and one area at a time, then export. Your area is the commuting radius of your candidate pool, not the city limits.

1. Choose the categories for your sector. Industrial: "warehouse", "distribution service", "logistics service", "manufacturer", "metal fabricator", "food processing company". Hospitality: "hotel", "restaurant", "event venue", "caterer". Healthcare: "nursing home", "assisted living facility", "home health care service", "medical clinic". See our Google Maps categories list.
2. Draw the area around your office or candidate base: a radius or a polygon around the industrial parks and corridors you can staff.
3. Search in pieces. One search stops at about 120 results, so split by ZIP code or neighborhood (why).
4. Export business, category, phone, website, address, rating and reviews.
5. Size the market with the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, which counts establishments by industry and employee-size class per county. It tells you how many 50+ employee warehouses your county has, so you know when your list is close to complete. It doesn't name them.

Maps data has one gap for staffing: it doesn't show headcount. Use proxies. A distribution center on a large lot, a hotel with hundreds of reviews, or a restaurant group with several locations is bigger than its category suggests. Industrial sites often have few reviews, so don't filter them out on review count.

How do I spot employers that are hiring right now?#

Check the employer's own careers page and the big job boards for your shortlist. A business with open postings for the same role month after month is a strong prospect: they're trying to fill it and failing.

Signals worth a column in your sheet:

• Open postings for entry-level or shift roles on their site or job boards
• The same role reposted over several weeks
• A "now hiring" banner on the website
• A new location or expansion (new businesses in your area are a good feed, see finding new businesses)
• Seasonal peaks: warehouses before the holidays, hotels and venues before summer and wedding season

Who should I contact, and how?#

Contact the person who feels the gap on the floor: the operations, warehouse, plant, kitchen or general manager. At larger sites, HR or procurement owns the approved-vendor list, so you may need both. Google Maps doesn't list people, so names come from the company's website, LinkedIn, or a call to the front desk. Our guide to finding the owner or manager of a business covers the methods.

For small employers, a role inbox from their own website (hr@, jobs@, office@) is a good first contact. It's read every day, and the person reading it is usually the one hiring.

Email to an operations manager#

Subject: Weekend shift at {{business}}

Hi {{first_name}},

I saw {{business}} has had a {{role}} opening posted for a few weeks.
We place {{role}}s with {{category}} sites around {{city}}, and most of
our people live within 20 minutes of you.

If it helps, I can send two pre-screened candidates for a trial shift
this week. You only pay for hours worked.

Worth a quick call?

[Name] · [Agency] · [Postal address]
Not the right person? Reply and I'll stop writing.

Phone opener for a hotel or restaurant#

"Hi, could I speak to the general manager? ... My name is [Name] from
[Agency]. We cover short-notice shifts for hotels in [area]: servers,
housekeeping, banquet staff. When you're short for an event, who do
you call today?"

The last question tells you whether they already use an agency and how happy they are with it. Many employers use more than one. Ask to be the backup. Cold calling has its own playbook in how to find businesses to cold call.

What offer wins a first order?#

Offer something small and low-risk that proves you can fill. Employers are wary of agencies that promise and don't deliver.

Then fill it fast. The second order matters more than the first.

A worked example#

An illustration, with invented response rates: a light-industrial agency draws a 25-minute drive radius around its office. Searching seven industrial categories ZIP by ZIP gives 640 businesses. Removing offices and retail counters leaves 410 sites. A check of careers pages flags 90 with open shift roles. Emailing and calling those 90, at an assumed 10% conversation rate, gives nine conversations; if one in three places a trial order, that's three new clients from one month of work. Measure your own rates per category and keep the categories that convert.

What rules apply to staffing outreach?#

In the US, CAN-SPAM covers commercial email to businesses: honest headers and subject lines, your postal address, and an opt-out honored within 10 business days. Under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, most business-to-business calls are exempt, but calls to employees to sell them something for their own use are not. Separately, some states and cities license employment agencies, with different rules for temporary and permanent placement. Check your state, read cold email laws, and get legal advice for your situation.

FAQ#

How do staffing agencies get new clients?#

Most win clients by picking a sector they can fill well (light industrial, hospitality, healthcare, office), listing every employer in that sector within driving distance of their candidates, and contacting the person who feels the hiring pain: an operations, plant, general or HR manager. Referrals and repeat orders follow from doing the first few placements well.

Which industries use staffing agencies the most?#

Industrial work is the largest. The American Staffing Association reports that 36% of staffing employees work in industrial jobs, 24% in office and administrative, 21% in professional and managerial, 11% in engineering, IT and science, and 8% in health care.

Which local employers hire the most often?#

Accommodation and food services has the highest hiring rate of any major private industry in BLS JOLTS data: 5.2% of employment was hired in August 2026, against 3.6% for all private industries. Retail trade (4.3%) and construction (3.7%) are also above average.

Who should a staffing agency contact at a company?#

At small and mid-sized local employers, contact the person who runs the shift: the operations, warehouse, plant, kitchen or general manager. HR often owns the vendor list at larger sites. A role inbox such as hr@ or jobs@ from the company's own website is a fine first contact at small businesses.

Do I need a license to run a staffing agency?#

It depends on where you operate and what you place. Some states and cities license employment agencies, and rules differ for temporary staffing, permanent placement and healthcare. Check with your state labor department and get legal advice before you start.

Sources#

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 2: Hires levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted (August 2026, preliminary).
2. American Staffing Association, Staffing Industry Statistics (weekly employment and annual hires for 2025; employment by sector).
3. US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (establishments by industry and employment size, by county).
4. Federal Trade Commission, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule (business-to-business exemption and its exceptions).
5. Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.