US · Scaling
What multiple do recruitment agencies sell for?
How recruitment and staffing businesses are valued at exit, and what moves the multiple up or down.
The short answer
Recruitment and staffing businesses typically trade on a multiple of EBITDA rather than revenue, with founder-dependent perm agencies at the low end and specialist contract books with proven retention at the high end. Contract revenue, niche scarcity, client concentration and life after the founder move the number most.
Buyers are pricing durability. A perm desk whose billings follow the founder out of the door is worth a fraction of a contract book where clinicians or engineers have been on assignment for eighteen months and renew without intervention.
Four factors decide where you land: the proportion of contract to perm, retention and tenure on assignment, client concentration, and whether the business runs without the founder in every deal. Fixing the fourth typically takes two years, which is why exit preparation starts long before the process does.
Deal structure matters as much as headline multiple. Earn-outs tied to post-completion performance can move realised value by a wide margin, and are where an adviser who has sold an agency in your niche pays for themselves.
United States
How this differs by US state and metro
The answer above holds nationally. What changes locally is registration, insurance, wage rules and how much cash each contractor consumes — these are the states and metros founders ask us about most.
Florida
Miami · Orlando · Tampa
Hospitality, events and tourism staffing across Miami, Orlando and the coast
Florida guideIllinois
Chicago · Naperville · Rockford
Light industrial, warehousing and food production across the Chicago metro
Illinois guideOhio
Columbus · Cleveland · Cincinnati
Manufacturing and light industrial across Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo
Ohio guideGeorgia
Atlanta · Savannah · Augusta
Logistics, distribution and port-driven work in Atlanta and Savannah
Georgia guideMetro-level wage, bill rate and startup cost detail:
Local questions
Does this change if I start in Florida?
The national answer holds. What changes in Florida is local: Hospitality, events and tourism staffing across Miami, Orlando and the coast Check the Florida page before you register anything, and model the cash gap on Florida pay rates rather than national averages.
Is the answer different in Illinois than in Florida?
The economics are the same shape; the local detail is not. In Illinois: Light industrial, warehousing and food production across the Chicago metro That affects your registration checklist and your working capital number, not the underlying principle.
Which US cities does this apply to?
All of them — but we publish metro-level bill rate, wage and startup cost detail for Tampa, Jacksonville, Chicago, Columbus and more, because pay rates and buyer mix vary far more between metros than between states.
Do I need a separate licence in every state I place in?
You register where you have employees and where you do business, not once nationally. Most states require unemployment insurance and withholding registration plus workers' compensation cover; a minority licence employment agencies, and some cities — New York City among them — licence separately from the state. Confirm each state and city before your first placement there.
Go deeper
Staffing agency vs recruitment agency: the difference that matters
Staffing agency versus recruitment agency: who employs the worker, how each one earns, the cash each model consumes, and which is the right business to start.
Want this answered for your business, not in general?
Apply and we will match you with an operator who has already built a recruitment or staffing business of your shape — and with the investors worth having.