# LAUNCH. open recruitment and staffing data

LAUNCH. publishes free, citable benchmarks for founders building recruitment and staffing agencies in the United States and United Kingdom.

Last updated: 2026-08-31

## Indexes

- [The LAUNCH. Staffing Bill Rate Index](https://launch-rec.com/data/bill-rate-index) — Median pay rates, fully burdened cost and the bill rate required to hit 20%, 25% and 30% gross margin, by recruitment niche and US state. Built on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data.
  - Download: https://launch-rec.com/api/public/data/bill-rate-index.csv
  - Direct answer: A staffing bill rate is the contractor's pay rate plus employer burden, divided by one minus your target gross margin. At a $30 pay rate with 12.5% burden, a 25% gross margin needs a bill rate of $45.00 — a 50% markup. This index publishes that calculation for every major recruitment niche and US state using published federal wage data.
- [The LAUNCH. Staffing Startup Cost Index](https://launch-rec.com/data/startup-cost-index) — The cash required to open a staffing agency, modelled state by state and niche by niche from real wage data: setup, six months of overheads, and the payroll gap that actually sinks new agencies.
  - Download: https://launch-rec.com/api/public/data/startup-cost-index.csv
  - Direct answer: Starting a staffing agency costs far more in working capital than in setup fees. Formation, insurance and software run around $9,000. Ten contractors on a 52-day cash cycle typically lock up six figures before a single invoice is paid. This index models that total for every US state and recruitment niche.
- [The LAUNCH. Funding Cost Benchmark](https://launch-rec.com/data/funding-cost-benchmark) — What each funding route actually costs a staffing agency: effective annual rate on cash advanced for factoring and payroll funding across the fee grid, compared with a bank line and with equity.
  - Download: https://launch-rec.com/api/public/data/funding-cost-benchmark.csv
  - Direct answer: Invoice factoring at a 1.5% discount fee per 30 days on a 45-day receivable costs roughly 27% effective annual rate on the cash advanced, before service fees. A bank line at 11% APR is cheaper, but most agencies under three years old cannot get one. This benchmark publishes the full fee grid so you can price your own term sheet.

## Method
The bill-rate and startup-cost indexes use US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 median hourly wages, with every model assumption disclosed on the relevant page. The funding benchmark is a transparent comparison model, not a funding offer.

## Attribution
Free to reuse with attribution to LAUNCH. Link to the relevant index page when quoting a figure.