Search interest in “staffing agency” is at its highest level in five years, and it has gone up every year in that time. The 2026 average is the highest of the five, and the single highest week was July 5, 2026.
Searches rise every summer and every January, when many people look for new work. The summer of 2026 was the busiest in five years. Since August, interest has cooled: in September it was about 11% lower than in September 2025. We'll keep watching whether that's a pause or a new trend.
Search interest in “staffing agency”, January–September average
| Search interest | |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 69 |
| 2023 | 73 |
| 2024 | 74 |
| 2025 | 79 |
| 2026 | 82 |
Highest week in five years: July 5, 2026. Scale: 100 = the busiest week for this search in the past five years. Source: Google Trends, US.
Job Seekers Turn to Agencies
In the past 30 days, searches for “staffing agencies near me” and “temp agencies near me” each rose 10%. Interest in “temp agency” is close to its five-year high too.
Search interest in “temp agency”, January–September average
| Search interest | |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 60 |
| 2023 | 68 |
| 2024 | 73 |
| 2025 | 74 |
| 2026 | 71 |
Scale: 100 = the busiest week for this search in the past five years. Source: Google Trends, US.
How Many People Search for Staffing Agencies?
Google Trends shows the direction. Google's own Keyword Planner shows the size: about 770,000 searches a month in the U.S. for these six searches alone.
| Search | Searches per month |
|---|---|
| staffing agency near me | 246,000 |
| staffing agency | 165,000 |
| temp agency near me | 135,000 |
| employment agencies near me | 110,000 |
| temp agency | 90,500 |
| employment agency | 27,100 |
Average monthly Google searches in the U.S., October 2025 to September 2026. Includes plural forms, such as “staffing agencies”. Source: Google Ads Keyword Planner.
The biggest searches all end in “near me”. Job seekers look for an agency close to home, so local visibility matters more than ranking for the general term.
But Temp Jobs Are Falling
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that temporary help services lost about 11,000 jobs in September 2026. More people are looking for agencies just as agencies have fewer temp roles to offer.
What This Means for Agencies
- Make sure you show up for “staffing agency near me”. Keep your Google Business Profile and location pages up to date.
- Show your open jobs publicly. Candidates want to see real jobs before they call.
- Build a bench now. Strong candidates are coming to you. Keep them for the next order.
- Reply to every applicant. Agencies that answer get remembered.
- Use this data with clients. Candidates are looking for agencies, so your pool is growing.
About This Data
- Source: Google Trends, United States, weekly data from October 2021 to October 2026. Updated on October 20, 2026.
- What the numbers mean: Google Trends shows search interest on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is the busiest week. It does not show the number of searches.
- Yearly comparison: January to September average for each year.
- Recent trend: September 2026 vs. September 2025.
- Search volumes: Google Ads Keyword Planner, United States, average monthly searches from October 2025 to September 2026. Keyword Planner rounds volumes and groups close variants (singular and plural).
- Temp jobs: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation, September 2026.
Sources: Google Trends: staffing agency vs temp agency, US, 5 years, BLS Employment Situation, September 2026.