List of Recruitment Companies in the UK

Last updated 2 November 2026

There are 35,607 recruitment companies in the UK, one in every 248 UK companies. Most of them are small: three in four have one to four people, and only 1,066 firms employ 50 people or more. Three in four of all recruitment agencies are based in London, South East, East of England, North West and West Midlands. Below you find the largest recruitment agencies in the UK, the regions where they cluster, how many started this year and which are the oldest. The full list with addresses, phone numbers and email is in our UK company database or through the Companies House API.

35,607 companies indexed · Data counted on 2 November 2026

Companies35,6071 in248 UK companiesRegions12Largest regionLondon 10,268Sole traders5%Employees1-4 (76%)Revenue< $100K (43%)Email24%Phone48%Website47%

Build your list Get a free sample

9 / 10 from 88 verified reviews

A live sample of the list

A live view of all 35,607 recruitment agencies, sorted by revenue. Narrow it by region, city, employee size, revenue, legal form or founding year, or search a firm by name.

Hays PLCHays PLC

	Company Name	Country	City	Address 1	State/Province	Postal Code	Website	Founding Year	Yearly Revenue in U.S. Dollars	Employees Total	Business Legal Type - Description	Number of Companies in Group	Company Registration Number
1	Hays PLC	Unitedkingdom	Monument-aldgate-fenchurch Street-tower Hill	4th Floor, 107, Cheapside	London	EC2V 6DN	*****.uk	1987	$8,961,833,905	10,393	Corporation	346	02150950
2	Paystream My Max LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Altrincham	Mansion House	Manchester, Greater Manchester	WA14 4RW	*****.uk	2007	$3,137,312,068	21,668	Corporation	12	06042225
3	Impellam Group LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Luton	First Floor ,mulberry House	Luton	LU1 3LU	*****.com	2009	$2,327,776,328	9,577	Corporation	276	06511961
4	Michael Page PLC	Unitedkingdom	Addlestone	200 Dashwood Lang Road	Surrey	KT15 2NX	*****.uk	1976	$2,111,597,616	7,069	Corporation	267	03310225
5	Hays Specialist Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Monument-aldgate-fenchurch Street-tower Hill	4th Floor	London	EC2V 6DN	*****.com	1970	$1,889,876,743	1,980	Corporation	346	00975677
6	Morson Group LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Media City UK	Adamson House	Manchester, Greater Manchester	M50 1RD	*****.com	1992	$1,788,596,620	2,322	Corporation	75	05111937
7	Nhs Professionals LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Tringford	Breakspear Park	Hertfordshire	HP2 4TZ	*****.uk	2008	$1,490,712,051	51,292	Corporation	2	06704614
8	Staffline Group PLC	Unitedkingdom	Bestwood	19-20 the Triangle Ng2 Business Park	Nottingham	NG2 1AE	*****.uk	2012	$1,463,697,073	972	Corporation	39	05268636
9	Reed Specialist Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	City of London	Academy Court	London	WC2A 1DT	*****.com	2009	$1,389,641,742	1,785	Corporation	136	06903140
10	Morson Human Resources LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Media City UK	Adamson House	Manchester, Greater Manchester	M50 1RD	*****.com	1969	$1,197,462,559	1,147	Corporation	75	02714555
11	Pertemps Network Group LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Four Oaks	Meriden Hall	Solihull, West Midlands	CV7 7PT	*****.uk	2011	$1,164,245,390	1,448	Corporation	206	07776671
12	Staffline Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Bestwood	19-20 the Triangle	Nottingham	NG2 1AE	*****.uk	1986	$1,042,275,464	694	Corporation	39	03996086
13	Robert Walters PLC	Unitedkingdom	Holborn-strand-covent Garden	11-13 Slingsby Place St Martin'S Courtyard	London	WC2E 9AB	*****.uk	1986	$1,033,065,676	3,088	Corporation	86	03956083
14	Guidant Global UK LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Luton	Mulberry House Parkland Square	Luton	LU1 3LU	*****.com	1993	$894,377,079	282	Corporation	276	02873036
15	Adecco UK LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Canary Wharf	10 Bishops Square	London	E1 6EG	*****.uk	1957	$741,346,772	1,291	Corporation	5546	00593232
16	Pertemps Recruitment Partnership LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Four Oaks	Meriden Hall	Solihull, West Midlands	CV7 7PT	*****.uk	1987	$657,813,705	620	Corporation	206	01644241
17	Ngage Specialist Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Monument-aldgate-fenchurch Street-tower Hill	Fifth Floor	London	EC2R 5AR	*****.com	2007	$655,761,906	657	Corporation	67	06189822
18	Sanderson Solutions Group PLC	Unitedkingdom	Hengrove Park	Clifton Down House	City of Bristol	BS8 2NH	*****.com	1982	$629,455,232	470	Corporation	26	01617971
19	Lorien Resourcing LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Luton	Mulberry House Parkland Square	Luton	LU1 3LU	*****.com	1977	$613,115,212	299	Corporation	276	01333388
20	Fl Capital Holdings LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Tunbridge Wells	The Meeting House	Kent	TN1 1YS	*****.uk	2000	$599,882,773	564	Corporation	14	04078975
21	Airswift Holdings LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Media City UK	Delphian House	Manchester, Greater Manchester	M3 5FS	*****.com	2015	$596,495,237	656	Corporation	60	09913704
22	Gi Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Chesterfield	Unit A the Glass Yard	Derbyshire	S41 8JY	*****.com	1993	$572,702,774	10,778	Corporation	731	02836088
23	Matchtech Group (UK) LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Wickham	1450 Parkway	Hampshire	PO15 7AF	*****.com	1984	$537,554,038	375	Corporation	19	04426336
24	Challenge-Trg Recruitment LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Moss Nook	2nd Floor Abbey House	Manchester, Greater Manchester	M2 4AB	*****.uk	2000	$528,452,036	14,922	Corporation	8	03974669
25	Pontoon Europe LIMITED	Unitedkingdom	Canary Wharf	10 Bishops Square	London	E1 6EG	*****.com	1998	$512,790,046	216	Corporation	5546	03399532

Showing 25 of 35,607 companies

Request Free Sample

Show the numbers for

Largest recruitment agencies in the UK

The biggest firms by staff and by revenue, the largest in London, the biggest newcomers of 2026 and the oldest firms. Click a name for the record.

NHS Professionals is the largest recruitment agency in the UK by headcount. 1,066 firms employ 50 people or more; 557 employ 100 or more.

1Hertfordshire51,292 staff
2Manchester21,668 staff
3Manchester14,922 staff
4Leeds9,271 staff
5Walsall8,638 staff
6London8,063 staff
7London7,125 staff
8Nottingham · public body5,000 staff
9Kent4,536 staff
10Saint Helens4,192 staff

By employee size · 33,618 firms with a known headcount

Employees	Firms	%
1-4	25,556	76%
5-9	3,553	11%
10-19	2,022	6%
20-49	1,421	4%
50-99	509	2%
100-199	278	0.8%
200-499	184	0.5%
500-999	52	0.2%
1,000+	43	0.1%

76% have 1 to 4 people; 1,421 have 20 to 49; 1,066 have 50 or more.

By yearly revenue (USD)

Revenue	Firms	%
< $100K	14,185	43%
$100K-$500K	11,749	35%
$500K-$1M	2,587	8%
$1M-$5M	3,242	10%
$5M-$10M	530	2%
$10M-$50M	791	2%
$50M-$100M	140	0.4%
$100M-$500M	102	0.3%
$500M+	25	<0.1%

43% under $100,000; 3,242 between $1M and $5M; 1,588 above $5M.

How many recruitment companies are there in the UK?

Recruitment companies and recruitment agencies in the UK

35,607

2 November 2026

There are 35,607 recruitment companies and recruitment agencies in the UK in our data (2 November 2026). That is one in every 248 UK companies. About 11 new firms are entered in the register every working day this year (2,306 so far in 2026).

Structure

Single-site firms: 31,688 89%
Head offices: 1,679
Branch offices: 2,240

Classification

Our platform filter is the national code 78109.

29,139 of the 35,607 are Ltd and PLC (82%); 1,710 are sole traders. They come from Companies House and our UK register data, through the Companies House API.

Recruitment agencies in London

London has 10,268 recruitment companies and recruitment agencies, 0.5% of all 1,945,804 London companies and 31% above the national share. Four in five London firms have fewer than five people; 289 have 50 or more. 896 new firms were entered in 2026, 161 date from before 1990.

Size

1-4 staff: 7,882 · 79%
5-9: 808 · 8%
10-19: 565 · 6%
20-49: 386 · 4%
50+: 289 · 3%

Legal form

Sole traders: 332 · 3%
Partnerships: 97 · 0.9%
Ltd and PLC: 9,139 · 89%
Other or none: 700 · 7%

Of the UK total: 28.8%
Of all London companies: 0.5%
Against the national share: 1.3×

New

Entered 2026 so far: 896
Entered 2025: 1,353
Of UK's 2026 entries: 38.9%

Old

Before 1990: 161 · 2%
1990 or later: 10,107 · 98%
Of UK's pre-1990 firms: 28.6%

Reachable

Email: 2,643 · 26%
Phone: 4,791 · 47%
Website: 4,826 · 47%

Revenue (USD)

Under $100K: 4,901 · 49%
$100K-$500K: 2,874 · 29%
$500K-$1M: 719 · 7%
$1M and more: 1,443 · 15%

Largest

18,063
27,125
34,188
42,038
51,980

How many are on your street?

Live tool

Without a region chosen the tool answers nationally. Pick a region above to scope it.

Try:

All companies in London →

Free London sample

Where in the UK?

London has the most recruitment companies in the UK (10,268), ahead of South East (5,429), East of England (3,901), North West (3,528) and West Midlands (2,928). Together the five hold three in four of them. Relative to their size, London, East of England and South East have the most: 1.1 to 1.3 times the national share.

Regions by number of firms

12 UK regions have at least one recruitment agency; 12 have ten or more; 0 have exactly one. Click a region to set the lens.

Only here

Where they cluster

Recruitment agencies per 100 companies, in regions with at least 100 of them. The national share is 0.40. London has 1.3 times the national share.

1.3×
1.2×
1.1×
1.0×
1.0×
0.9×
0.9×
0.8×
0.7×
0.6×
0.5×
0.5×

Dashed line: the national share. A filled dot is twice the national share or more.

Firm sizes in the UK

Of the 33,618 UK recruitment agencies with a known headcount, 25,556 (76%) have one to four people, 3,553 have five to nine, 3,443 have ten to 49 and 1,066 have 50 or more. Most firms turn over under $100,000 a year (14,185, 43%).

EU size bands · the grey line shows all UK companies

Micro under 1029,109 87%
Small 10 to 493,443 10%
Medium 50 to 249971 3%
Large 250+95 0.3%

Grey line: the share among all UK companies (93% have under ten staff).

1,588

firms turn over more than $5 million a year; 1,058 more than $10 million.

2,306

firms were entered in 2026.

Newcomers in the UK in 2026

2,306 recruitment agencies were entered in the UK register so far in 2026, about 11 a working day, after 3,786 in 2025. The UK as a whole saw 534,395 new companies in 2026, so this industry takes 0.4% of the inflow.

1,6112022
2,3012023
2,8962024
3,7862025
2,3062026 so far

2,294 of this year's 2,306 are Ltd and PLC.

The biggest newcomers of 2026

The year is the register entry; an established firm that changes legal form appears as new.

1Cardiff25 staff
2Belfast18 staff
3City of Edinburgh15 staff
4Medway11 staff
5Nottingham10 staff

How they compare

Next to related industries

There are 3 software companies for every recruitment agency in the UK.

Industry	Firms	Website	1-4 staff
Software Companies	103,426	26%	90%
Recruitment Companies	35,607	47%	72%
Video Games Companies	7,137	13%	94%
Website Designers	6,597	96%	87%
Window Cleaners	5,839	53%	91%
Crane Rentals	4,703	43%	73%

Free sample: recruitment agencies in Europe

How reachable are they?

Recruitment agencies are easier to reach than the average UK company: 48% list a phone number and 47% a website.

Email8,689 24%
Phone16,949 48%
Website16,697 47%

Grey line: all UK companies (email 15%, phone 30%, website 30%).

The full list with these fields is in our UK company database.

The oldest firms in the UK

Our data holds 2 UK recruitment agencies from before 1900, 59 from before 1950 and 562 from before 1990.

1824
1. Manchester
1865
1. London
1900
1. Devon
1900
1. West Berkshire
1900
1. Nottingham
1901
1. London

Older than you

Live tool

Move the slider to a year. Two live counts, scoped to this industry.

1990

562

UK recruitment agencies date from before 1990

were entered in 1990

Sole traders or Ltd: how they are organised

One in twenty-one UK recruitment agencies work as sole traders, against 7% of all UK companies. Four in five are Ltd and PLC.

Sole traders1,7105%
Partnerships (partnerships and LLPs)3851%
Ltd and PLC29,13982%
No form on record or other4,37312%

Single-site: 89%
Head offices: 1,679
Branches: 2,240

All UK companies: 7% sole traders, 3% partnerships, 62% Ltd and PLC.

Frequently asked questions

How many recruitment companies are there in the UK?

There are 35,607 recruitment companies and recruitment agencies in the UK in our data, counted on 2 November 2026. That is one in every 248 UK companies.

Which is the largest recruitment agency in the UK?

NHS Professionals in Hertfordshire, with 51,292 staff. By revenue Hays in London leads with $9.0 billion a year.

Which UK region has the most recruitment companies?

London, with 10,268, ahead of South East (5,429), East of England (3,901), North West (3,528) and West Midlands (2,928).

How many recruitment agencies are there in London?

10,268, which is 0.5% of all 1,945,804 London companies and 31% above the national share.

How big is a typical recruitment agency?

Small. 76% of the 33,618 firms with a known headcount have one to four people; 1,066 have 50 or more. Most turn over under $100,000 a year.

Are UK recruitment companies sole traders or companies?

One in twenty-one (1,710) are sole traders, 1% are partnerships and 82% (29,139) are Ltd and PLC.

How many recruitment agencies started in 2026?

2,306 were entered in the UK register so far in 2026, after 3,786 in 2025. 2,294 of them are Ltd and PLC.

What is the oldest recruitment agency in the UK?

The University of Manchester Conferences in Manchester, 1824, followed by Salvation Army in London (1865) and Fe Careers in Devon (1900). 2 firms date from before 1900.

Which industry code covers recruitment companies?

Our platform filters them on the national code 78109.

Can I download the full list?

Yes. All 35,607 firms with address, phone, email, legal form, employees, revenue and founding year, as Excel, CSV or through the API.

Discover more: related industries, by region, in other countries

The lists closest to this one. Every industry and city in the UK is on the UK page.

Administrative and support

Companies in UK cities

Europe

Get the full list of recruitment companies in the UK

All 35,607 firms with address, phone, email, legal form, employees, revenue and founding year. Excel, CSV or API, delivered within 24 hours.

Get a free sample