Staffing Agency in New York City
KORE1 is a staffing agency in New York City placing IT, engineering, accounting, finance, and creative talent across all five boroughs. We started in Southern California, built a track record that companies in other markets noticed, and when the calls from Manhattan and Brooklyn kept coming we stopped pretending geography was a barrier. Our recruiters work this market every day. They know which neighborhoods produce which skill sets, which industries are bleeding talent, and which subway line your candidates are not willing to commute past. That last part matters more than most agencies will admit.
Why Companies in New York Choose KORE1
New York has somewhere around 2,000 staffing agencies. We checked, and honestly the real number might be higher because half of them operate under two or three brand names that all route back to the same office on Sixth Avenue. The NY Department of Labor tracked 4.17 million private sector jobs in the city as of January 2026, and NYCEDC’s 2025 economy report shows record job levels across the metro. The staffing industry here grew to match that demand with an absurd density of competing firms that makes picking one feel impossible. Every national chain has a Midtown office. Every boutique firm claims deep local connections.
So the question is fair. Why would anyone pick KORE1?
Because we are not trying to be everything to everyone, and that is actually a competitive advantage in a market where the biggest agencies treat volume as a substitute for precision. The mega-firms staff receptionists and CTOs out of the same office with the same process. We do not. Our practice is built around five verticals where we have genuine depth. IT staffing, engineering, accounting and finance, human resources, and digital and creative roles. That focus means our recruiters carry smaller, more targeted requisition loads. They are not juggling 40 open roles across 15 unrelated industries. They are working 12 to 18 searches in domains they understand, which is why our average time-to-fill runs about 40% faster than the industry benchmark for New York.
The other thing worth knowing is that we actually track our own retention data and publish it when asked. Over 90% of our placements complete their full assignment or convert to permanent. In a city where candidates get poached mid-contract because someone across the street offered an extra $3 an hour, that number is not accidental. Not luck. It comes from matching on fit, not just on keywords.
Industries and Roles We Staff in NYC
New York’s economy runs on specialization. The financial district needs different talent than the tech corridor in Chelsea and the Flatiron. Midtown’s corporate headquarters want different skills than the healthcare systems across Brooklyn and the Bronx. A staffing agency that treats all of it the same will waste your time.
We staff across distinct verticals:
IT and technology roles, including software engineers, cloud architects, DevOps professionals, data engineers, cybersecurity analysts, and infrastructure specialists. Wall Street firms and fintech startups both pull from this same pool, which is exactly why you need recruiters who know the difference between a $180K Python developer who builds trading systems and a $180K Python developer who builds SaaS platforms. Same title, completely different person.
Engineering talent for mechanical, electrical, civil, and biomedical roles across a metro area where the construction boom alone generates enough open requisitions to keep a mid-size agency busy full time. That is a lot of open engineering roles. Healthcare device manufacturing on Long Island, defense subcontracting throughout northern New Jersey and Westchester, and the infrastructure projects running through every borough feed a pipeline of requisitions that most generic recruiting firms cannot fill because they do not have anyone on staff who can vet a PE license or assess whether someone’s ITAR experience is real or padded.
Accounting, finance, and fractional CFO services. New York runs on money, obviously, but the finance talent market here is brutally segmented. Public accounting firms, corporate FP&A teams, private equity back offices, and nonprofit controllers all need different profiles. We recruit for all of them but never pretend they are interchangeable.
HR staffing. This one surprises people. Companies scaling fast enough to need dedicated people operations but not so large that they have a 20-person HR department make up a huge part of the New York market, and they tend to delay HR hires until compliance catches up to them and suddenly they need three people at once.
Digital and creative professionals. Not just any creatives. UX designers who ship production work, not just pretty Figma files. Product managers who have run real sprint teams. Content strategists who understand SEO, not just editorial calendars. And marketing technologists who sit somewhere between a developer and a demand gen lead, which is a role that barely existed five years ago but now shows up on about a third of the job descriptions we see from DTC brands in SoHo. The agencies on Madison Avenue poach these people from each other constantly, which creates a weird closed loop where the same 200 people rotate between the same 15 companies. We source outside that loop.
What Makes KORE1 Different From Other NYC Staffing Agencies
The pitch from most New York staffing agencies sounds identical. We have a large network. We move fast. We understand your industry. And sure, most of them probably mean it. But meaning it and executing on it are not the same thing when you are running 200 open requisitions out of a single Midtown office with recruiters who got hired three months ago.
Here is what we actually do differently. Three things.
Multi-vertical coverage under one relationship. If your company needs a senior cloud engineer and also needs a controller, you do not want two different agencies involved. You want one team that understands your company culture, your compensation philosophy, and your interview process. Two agencies means two onboarding conversations, two sets of candidate formatting preferences, and double the coordination overhead. We handle IT, engineering, finance, HR, and creative from a single account relationship.
Recruiter specialization that is real and not just marketing. When we say our IT recruiter knows cloud infrastructure, we mean they can tell the difference between someone who administered an AWS environment and someone who architected one. That distinction matters and it is the reason our clients stop getting mismatched resumes after working with us for a few weeks.
Hyper-local compensation data. We are not pretending that salary data from a national survey applies to Manhattan. The New York labor market is its own planet. A data analyst in Midtown commands $15K to $25K more than the same role in most other metros, and even within the city there are micro-market differences between industries. Our comp data is current and hyper-local because our recruiters live and work in the same market they recruit for.
New York City by the Numbers
Avg. temp placement time
Industry benchmark, major metros
How We Staff in New York City
Contract Staffing
Project-based and seasonal talent with payroll, benefits, and compliance handled by KORE1. Scales up or down without the overhead of permanent headcount.
Direct Hire
Permanent placements driven by recruiter-led sourcing, screening, and reference verification. You interview a shortlist, not a resume pile.
Contract-to-Hire
Start with a contract engagement and convert to permanent once both sides confirm fit. Reduces mis-hire risk in a market where replacing the wrong person costs six figures.
Where We Place Talent Across NYC
KORE1 serves employers and job seekers across all five New York City boroughs and the surrounding metro area.
Manhattan
This is where the majority of our placements land. Midtown, the Financial District, Chelsea, SoHo, Flatiron, and Hudson Yards.
Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Williamsburg, and Brooklyn Heights. The Navy Yard tech hub keeps growing. Fast.
Queens
Long Island City, Astoria, and the growing commercial corridors along Queens Boulevard.
The Bronx
Healthcare systems, educational institutions, and logistics operations throughout the borough.
Staten Island
Corporate offices and healthcare facilities on the North Shore.
We also place candidates at companies based in Jersey City, Hoboken, Westchester County, and Long Island who draw talent from the NYC workforce. Hiring in another East Coast metro too? Our recruiters also cover staffing in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami.
Common Questions
How much does a staffing agency in New York City charge?
It depends on the model. For contract or temporary placements, agencies typically charge a markup on the worker’s hourly rate. In New York that markup ranges from 30% to 65% depending on the role’s seniority and how quickly you need someone. Direct hire fees usually run 18% to 25% of the candidate’s first-year salary. KORE1’s pricing is transparent. We quote a flat markup or placement percentage upfront with no hidden admin fees.
How quickly can a staffing agency place someone in NYC?
Temporary and contract roles often fill within a week. Sometimes faster if we already have vetted candidates on our bench who match. Direct hire searches take longer because the screening is more thorough, but our average in New York is about three weeks from kickoff to accepted offer. That is roughly half the national average for similar roles, and it comes from maintaining an active, pre-screened candidate pipeline rather than starting every search from scratch.
What types of jobs do New York staffing agencies fill?
Agencies in New York cover everything from administrative and light industrial to executive leadership. KORE1 focuses on five verticals where we have deep expertise: IT and technology, engineering, accounting and finance, human resources, and digital and creative roles. Within IT alone we place software engineers, data scientists, cloud architects, cybersecurity analysts, DevOps engineers, and IT project managers.
Do I have to pay a staffing agency as a job seeker?
Never. Reputable staffing agencies in New York are paid by the employer, not the candidate. If any agency asks you for money upfront to place you in a role, walk away. KORE1 never charges candidates.
How are staffing agencies different from recruiting firms?
Practically speaking, the terms overlap more than people think. Staffing agencies tend to handle more contract and temporary placements while recruiting firms focus on permanent searches. Many companies, KORE1 included, do both. We handle contract staffing, direct hire, and contract-to-hire across our five practice areas. The distinction matters less than whether the firm you are working with actually understands your industry and can deliver candidates who stick.
Can a staffing agency in NYC help with temporary-to-permanent hiring?
Absolutely, and honestly if you are hiring in a market as expensive as New York you should seriously consider it before committing to a permanent offer. The math is simple but brutal when it goes wrong: a bad permanent hire can run you past $100,000 when you add up recruiting costs, onboarding time, lost productivity, and the severance or settlement that sometimes follows a termination in this state. Contract-to-hire lets you evaluate someone on the actual job for 90 to 180 days before converting them to your payroll. We handle the employment paperwork during the contract period so the financial and legal risk sits with us, not you.
Ready to Hire in NYC?
Our recruiters are already here. Tell us what you need and we will send you qualified candidates, not a sales deck and a 90-day timeline.