Yes. Temporary staffing is classified under 78.20, placement including executive search under 78.10. Companies offering both are classified under their main activity.
N 78
Temporary employment agencies, private recruitment agencies, HR consultants and headhunters – for providers of recruiting, time recording and payroll software, job boards, occupational safety and insurance, and for companies looking for a staffing provider. Start with a clear inclusion and exclusion brief for German companies. Use industry, territory and required contact fields to describe a workable target group rather than requesting the largest possible list.
Our database (as of 21 October 2026): 9,112 businesses in this industry, 8,704 of them with a phone number.
Export of the whole industry: €409 (final price). Selections by federal state, district or your own filters are quoted on request.
Official statistics: 11,376 businesses in Germany according to Destatis, business register, GENESIS table 52111-0010 (reference year 2024, table updated 21 September 2026). Division 78 employment activities: employment placement agencies (78.1), temporary employment agencies (78.2) and other human resources provision (78.3). This is the size of the market, not the size of our database.
| Item | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses in our database | 9,112 | 100 % |
| with phone number | 8,704 | 95.5 % |
| with email address | 2,709 | 29.7 % |
| with website | 8,550 | 93.8 % |
| Price for the whole industry | €409 | Final price |
Division 78 “Employment activities” has three groups: employment placement (78.1) including executive search, temporary employment agencies (78.2) and other human resources provision (78.3).
Consulting on organisation and personnel development belongs to management consultancy (70.22) and is in the industry Business and consulting services. The Federal Employment Agency and the job centres are not staffing providers within the meaning of this industry.
| WZ 2008 | Official title | For your selection |
|---|---|---|
| 78.10 | Activities of employment placement agencies | private recruitment agencies, executive search |
| 78.20 | Temporary employment agency activities | temporary agency work, employee leasing |
| 78.30 | Other human resources provision | permanent employee leasing, staff secondment |
Hiring out employees requires a licence. For private recruitment, registering the trade is sufficient.
These 15 columns are included.
Targeting brief for Staffing and recruitment agencies: For each relevant code (78.10, 78.20, 78.30), decide which activity fits your offer and which neighbouring activities to exclude. Unavailable attributes are: licence under the AÜG and its date; number of temporary workers and branches; specialisation by occupational group; collective agreement and association membership; names of branch and HR managers. Do not treat these as filters already applied to the list. Transfer the boundaries explained below into the brief and flag the research your team still needs to do.
Large temporary employment companies work with many branches that look after clients and applicants locally. An entry represents the company with its address; individual branches are only included where our sources list them separately.
Many staffing providers specialise – in care, logistics, engineering, IT or executives. This specialisation is not a feature of the classification. Company name and website serve as an approximation; describe the orientation you are looking for in your request.
Many companies offer temporary staffing and placement at the same time and are classified under their main activity. If you want to address both services, request the whole of division 78.
We offer software for scheduling and payroll in temporary staffing and are looking for temporary employment agencies (78.20) in North Rhine-Westphalia with a phone number and website. Please exclude pure HR consultancies. How many companies does the selection include?
Use cases
Scheduling, time recording and payroll: contact temporary employment agencies in a region.
Win advertising clients among recruiters and temporary employment agencies.
Equipment for temporary workers in industry and logistics.
Compare and contact staffing providers in your own district.
Questions
Yes. Temporary staffing is classified under 78.20, placement including executive search under 78.10. Companies offering both are classified under their main activity.
No. The licence is not a column of the export. In the agency contract the lender must state whether it holds the licence (§ 12 AÜG).
No. They belong to public administration and are not staffing providers within the meaning of this industry.
No. Selection helps document relevance, but does not establish demand, contact permission or response rates. Confirm which criteria can actually be applied and retain exclusions with the agreed brief.
11,376 businesses in Germany according to Destatis, business register, GENESIS table 52111-0010 (reference year 2024, table updated 21 September 2026). Division 78 employment activities: employment placement agencies (78.1), temporary employment agencies (78.2) and other human resources provision (78.3). This is a figure from official statistics, not the size of our dataset.
9,112 businesses in our database (as of 21 October 2026), 8,704 of them with a phone number (95.5%), 2,709 with an email address and 8,550 with a website. Regional filters reduce the number; we confirm the size of your selection before you order.
Format, sources, price and marketing law (§ 7 UWG): questions about all industries.