127 Staffing Firms Made the 2026 Inc. 5000. Recruiting Only Got 26

I just published the 26 recruiting firms on the 2026 Inc. 5000. Executive search, contingent agencies, RPO. Half of one percent of the list. → [RECRUITING-ARTICLE-LINK]

This is the other side of that data.

I went through all 5,002 companies on the 2026 list one at a time. 153 of them are talent providers.

26 are recruiting firms.

127 are staffing companies.

Almost five to one.

And once you look at where the money actually is, that ratio stops being surprising and starts being instructive.

FIRST, THE PART THAT SHOULD END AN ARGUMENT

Thirteen talent providers on this list cleared $100M in revenue.

Twelve of the thirteen are staffing companies.

The recruiting side put exactly one firm above $100M, and that was JM Search.

I wrote earlier about why, and it comes down to something a friend pointed out to me while I was sorting this data. Most of a staffing owner's valuation is in the contract book, not the placements.

Fees are transactional. Great year, great income, and every January you start at zero.

Contract revenue is recurring. It's sticky. A buyer will pay a multiple for it.

That's the whole difference between the two lists, and you can see it in the revenue bands from top to bottom.

OFFSHORE AND NEARSHORE — 38 FIRMS

This is the biggest cohort on the list and the fastest growing. Median growth 203%. Median rank 1,717, which is better than every other talent category by a wide margin.

Almost all of them were founded between 2018 and 2021.

No. 116 — Blue Coding (Miami) — 2,449% No. 118 — Hire With Near (San Antonio) — 2,421% No. 171 — Thrivemodal (Sandy Springs, GA) — 1,928% No. 375 — Virtual Intelligence (Centralia, IL) — 939% No. 541 — Hire Bloom (Lehi, UT) — 645% No. 661 — Virtustant (St. Petersburg, FL) — 517% No. 692 — Valoroo (Reno) — 500% No. 825 — The Flock (Miami) — 417% No. 841 — Connext (Honolulu) — 410% No. 856 — Go Staffy (Miami) — 405% No. 1,073 — DOXA Talent (Garden City, ID) — 327% No. 1,111 — Gordian Staffing (Omaha) — 316% No. 1,146 — GoFasti (Dallas) — 307% No. 1,321 — Virtual Latinos (San Diego) — 265% No. 1,346 — Gabtech Global (Glendale, AZ) — 262% No. 1,356 — WorkBetterNow (New York) — 261% No. 1,422 — Kajae (Lehi, UT) — 248% No. 1,492 — Delegate CX (Dallas) — 236% No. 1,690 — Remote Team Solutions (Reno) — 206% No. 1,745 — Horatio (Brickell, FL) — 200% No. 1,758 — Staffingly (Piscataway, NJ) — 198% No. 1,956 — ZimWorX (Argyle, TX) — 175% No. 2,345 — Unity Communications (Gilbert, AZ) — 143% No. 2,616 — Tecla (Dallas) — 123% No. 3,012 — Extenteam (Miami) — 102% No. 3,470 — Get Staffed Up (Miami) — 82% No. 3,482 — RepStack (Wilmington, DE) — 81% No. 3,943 — 20four7VA (Berlin, MD) — 63% No. 4,139 — Zipdev (San Diego) — 55% No. 4,212 — Rapido Solutions Group (Chicago) — 52% No. 4,247 — Anchora (Woodbridge, NJ) — 51% No. 4,272 — Full Scale (Overland Park, KS) — 50% No. 4,297 — SupportYourApp (Wilmington, DE) — 49% No. 4,332 — unosquare (Portland, OR) — 48% No. 4,538 — iSupport Worldwide (Henderson, NV) — 39% No. 4,900 — Squared Away (Hampstead, NC) — 18% No. 4,910 — Boldr (Santa Monica) — 18% No. 4,933 — Prialto (Portland, OR) — 16%

The two fastest-growing talent companies in America are both on that list, and both are placing Latin American talent into US companies.

Miami shows up four times. That is not an accident. It's the LatAm nearshore corridor and it's becoming a real hub.

IT STAFFING AND STAFF AUGMENTATION — 31 FIRMS

Median growth 87%.

No. 293 — Revuud (Cornelius, NC) — 1,169% No. 319 — Blue Bridge People (Cincinnati) — 1,057% No. 415 — AlgebraIT (Austin) — 842% No. 776 — JRSS Corporation (Verona, WI) — 447% No. 808 — Key Choice Group (Mechanicsville, VA) — 427% No. 1,112 — Ampstek (Princeton, NJ) — 316% No. 1,347 — BetterWay Devs (Miami) — 262% No. 1,416 — Advanced Tech Placement (Sandy Springs, GA) — 250% No. 1,580 — Programmers.ai (Coppell, TX) — 221% No. 2,039 — HireRising (Phoenix) — 167% No. 2,144 — Dale Workforce Solutions (Bala Cynwyd, PA) — 158% No. 2,415 — Digitive (Dublin, CA) — 137% No. 2,725 — Developers.net (Austin) — 117% No. 3,022 — Blend360 (Columbia, MD) — 101% No. 3,321 — Tier4 Group (Roswell, GA) — 88% No. 3,350 — Take2 Consulting (Vienna, VA) — 87% No. 3,816 — Gravity IT Resources (Fort Lauderdale) — 68% No. 3,832 — Fleming Technical Resources (Waukee, IA) — 67% No. 3,995 — HIRE Technology (Houston) — 60% No. 4,170 — Summit Human Capital (Richmond, VA) — 55% No. 4,207 — My3Tech (Pierre, SD) — 52% No. 4,254 — Elevate Digital (Cornelius, NC) — 51% No. 4,402 — Tal Search Group (Tallahassee) — 45% No. 4,438 — 1Link Technology (Germantown, TN) — 43% No. 4,460 — PSM Partners (Chicago) — 42% No. 4,569 — IMCS Group (Irving, TX) — 37% No. 4,708 — AGM Tech Solutions (Manalapan, NJ) — 30% No. 4,771 — Inteliblue (Little Rock) — 27% No. 4,842 — PRIAMBA SOFT (Iselin, NJ) — 23% No. 4,854 — Optomi (Atlanta) — 22% No. 4,977 — Sedna Consulting Group (Philadelphia) — 13%

Optomi is the giant here at $250M to $500M. Blend360 and Take2 Consulting both cleared $100M.

GENERAL STAFFING — 27 FIRMS

Median growth 148%, which is higher than IT staffing and higher than recruiting.

No. 463 — Steadfast Employment (Flowood, MS) — 740% No. 487 — DQS Solutions & Staffing (Dearborn, MI) — 707% No. 577 — Releady (Bellevue, WA) — 609% No. 791 — Morph Enterprise (Indian Trail, NC) — 438% No. 904 — Mordor Staffing Holdings (Dorado, PR) — 384% No. 984 — Eleven Recruiting (Los Angeles) — 352% No. 1,207 — Scalepex (Plano, TX) — 291% No. 1,350 — H2B Consulting (Liberty Hill, TX) — 262% No. 1,483 — Orange Tree Staffing (Maitland, FL) — 237% No. 1,516 — Epic Personnel Partners (Pleasanton, CA) — 231% No. 1,612 — Trova Advisory Group (Hillside, IL) — 216% No. 1,620 — Openwork (Austin) — 215% No. 1,705 — STAFF NOW (Columbus, OH) — 204% No. 2,277 — CRB Workforce (The Woodlands, TX) — 148% No. 2,420 — Vantage Point Consulting (Alpharetta, GA) — 137% No. 2,437 — Solve IT Strategies (Chicago) — 136% No. 3,266 — HG Staffing (Lascassas, TN) — 90% No. 3,846 — AdNet/AccountNet (Baltimore) — 67% No. 4,107 — Spotter Staffing (Chicago) — 56% No. 4,369 — RHM Staffing Solutions (Oak Brook, IL) — 46% No. 4,407 — EDS Service Solutions (Atlanta) — 45% No. 4,504 — Spark Companies (Troy, MI) — 41% No. 4,617 — Staff One (West Allis, WI) — 34% No. 4,838 — 24 Seven Talent (Melville, NY) — 23% No. 4,890 — Murray Resources (Houston) — 19% No. 4,918 — Accede Solutions (Inverness, IL) — 17% No. 4,982 — TalentBurst (Natick, MA) — 13%

DQS Solutions is the standout on the entire list. $250M to $500M in revenue and still growing 707%. That combination does not happen often.

Openwork was founded in 1967. Still on the list at 215%.

HEALTHCARE STAFFING — 18 FIRMS

Second-biggest vertical, and it produced the third-fastest talent company in America.

No. 132 — Wander Staffing (Austin) — 2,296% No. 267 — Strategic Office Support (Houston) — 1,263% No. 468 — GoTu (Miami) — 731% No. 519 — Greenlife Healthcare Staffing (Tampa) — 668% No. 971 — Global Medical Virtual Assistants (West Hartford, CT) — 355% No. 2,246 — Arc Health (Redmond, OR) — 150% No. 2,730 — Core Clinical Partners (Atlanta) — 117% No. 2,748 — Ro Health (Seattle) — 115% No. 2,805 — Pacific Companies (Irvine, CA) — 112% No. 3,109 — ATC Healthcare Services (Lake Success, NY) — 97% No. 3,114 — Functional Pathways (Knoxville) — 97% No. 3,573 — AEB (Grand Rapids) — 77% No. 3,707 — Cuready Healthcare Staffing (Greenwood Village, CO) — 72% No. 4,300 — Sterling Staffing Solutions (Sugar Land, TX) — 49% No. 4,600 — EGA Associates (Jeannette, PA) — 36% No. 4,738 — DPI Anesthesia (Baton Rouge) — 29% No. 4,772 — 4D Global (Boca Raton) — 27% No. 4,820 — Nursa (Murray, UT) — 24%

Three of these cleared $100M. Nursa is worth a note. It ranked No. 1,504 last year and No. 4,820 this year. Still on the list, still $100M plus, but that's a real deceleration.

SKILLED TRADES — 4 FIRMS

Small group, big numbers.

No. 627 — Superior Skilled Trades (Rockledge, FL) — 547% No. 1,920 — Leapros (St. Charles, IL) — 179% No. 2,855 — KP Staffing (Fort Worth) — 110% No. 3,609 — AllStaff Industrial (Beloit, OH) — 76%

Superior Skilled Trades is doing $250M to $500M at 547% growth. Only DQS matches that combination.

Four firms. Everybody says the trades are the opportunity. Four firms on this list actually built it.

GOVERNMENT AND CLEARED STAFFING — 3 FIRMS

No. 4,159 — Assertive Professionals (Wilmington, NC) — 55% No. 4,810 — Gridiron IT (Reston, VA) — 25% No. 4,896 — Windsor Group (Bethesda, MD) — 19%

Three. Out of 5,002 companies.

This is my world, so let me say what that number means. Cleared staffing is one of the most durable niches in this industry. Contract vehicles, recurring revenue, a candidate pool that cannot be offshored by law.

And it produced three firms on the Inc. 5000, all in the bottom fifth.

That's not a knock on Gridiron, Windsor, or Assertive. It's a market condition. Federal budget cycles, contract recompetes, and a hiring freeze environment made 2022 to 2025 a hard window to post growth percentages in, no matter how good the underlying business is.

OTHER TALENT PROVIDERS — 6 FIRMS

The ones that don't fit anywhere, and they're some of the most interesting on the list.

No. 798 — Karma Casting USA (Chicago) — 435% No. 1,303 — TAG CXO (Phoenix) — 270% No. 1,405 — Overwatch Mission Critical (Austin) — 251% No. 2,732 — GxPartners (Indianapolis) — 117% No. 2,953 — Crew One Productions (New Orleans) — 104% No. 3,148 — Lifetime of Love Nannies (Reno) — 95%

TAG CXO places fractional executives. Crew One staffs live events. Lifetime of Love places nannies out of Reno and grew 95% doing it.

There is a niche for everything and somebody is running it well.

WHAT THE WHOLE PICTURE SAYS

Line the four models up by median rank:

Offshore and nearshore — 1,717 Domestic staffing — 2,776 IT staff augmentation — 3,350 Recruiting — 3,604

The further you get from a US recruiter making a placement, the higher you rank.

That is the 2022 to 2025 market in four numbers.

Clients never stopped hiring. They stopped paying a 25% fee for one hire when they could staff a whole function at a fraction of the loaded cost. Money moved from fees to bill rates and from onshore to offshore.

If you run a search desk, that is not a reason to quit. It's a reason to look hard at two things.

One: how narrow are you? The recruiting firms that grew all own a lane nobody can arbitrage. Construction. Legal nurse consultants. Chiefs of staff. Athletes into sales.

Two: where is your valuation? If every dollar you make is a placement fee, you have a great income and not much else. Twelve of the thirteen $100M talent companies on this list are staffing firms, and that is not a coincidence.

ONE MORE THING WORTH KNOWING

While building this I noticed the numbers didn't line up.

Inc. tags every company with an industry category. Only 85 of the 153 talent providers are tagged "Human Resources."

The other 68 are filed under IT Services, Business Services, Healthcare, Government Services, Software, Logistics, Construction, and Consumer Services.

44% of the recruiting and staffing firms on the Inc. 5000 are invisible if you use Inc.'s own HR filter.

Which is what every writeup of this list uses.

Blue Coding, the fastest-growing talent firm on the whole list, is tagged IT Services. Superior Skilled Trades is tagged Construction. Nursa is tagged Software.

So if you've read anything about staffing firms on the Inc. 5000 this month, the number in it was probably wrong. That's why I went through all 5,002 slowly. (And I could still be wrong. lol)

AND BEFORE ANYBODY ASKS

Plenty of good firms are not on this list, and that's not a growth problem.

The Inc. 5000 is an application, not a survey. Applications closed April 24. The fee ran $395 early, $495 through March, $695 after that, nonrefundable.

Then you have to verify revenue with redacted tax returns or financial statements audited, reviewed, or compiled by an independent accounting firm. Inc. does not accept an internal P&L.

Most staffing owners I know run lean books and have no interest in publishing revenue where clients and competitors can read it.

So 127 is not "the 127 fastest-growing staffing firms in America." It's 127 that grew, applied, paid, verified, and were willing to be public about it.

WHAT I'M RUNNING NEXT

🎯 Finish the Year Strong Q4 decides the year. If this data made you want to change something about your desk before January, start here. → [FINISH-THE-YEAR-STRONG-LINK]

🏢 The Firm Owners Summit The valuation conversation. Contract versus fee, what buyers actually pay for, and how to build something with a multiple instead of a great income. This article is the argument for why that room matters. → Details coming soon

🤖 The Agent Builders Workshop 38 offshore firms just outgrew every domestic model on this list on cost structure. AI agents are how you answer that without moving your desk overseas. We build, you leave with something running. This workshop is being led by my friend Seb Sharpe → [AGENT-BUILDERS-LINK]

🎙️ The Elite Recruiter Podcast 300+ episodes with the operators actually doing this work. Follow, listen, subscribe. →

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/2HNujlJjoAEE49zqPdX0AB?si=a534431442a7412a

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-elite-recruiter-podcast/id1547241660

📊 The recruiting half of this data 26 firms, why only one cleared $100M, and what the fastest growers all had in common. → [RECRUITING-ARTICLE-LINK]

👥 The Elite Recruiter CommunityThe full sortable spreadsheet behind this is posted inside. All 153 firms, four tabs, filterable by state, growth, revenue band, and category, plus the methodology and the 68 firms Inc.'s own filter misses. Free for members, along with the billers club and biweekly roundtables.→ https://elite-recruiters.circle.so/checkout/elite-recruiter-community

127 firms. Tag the ones you know.

And if you're on this list and I put you in the wrong category, tell me. I sorted 5,002 companies, and I would rather be corrected than be wrong.

#Staffing #StaffingIndustry #Inc5000 #Recruiting #RecruitingFirmOwner #TalentAcquisition #Nearshore #EliteRecruiterPodcast