![Out of Work from Nellie Bly, Trying to Be a Servant (1887)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Out_of_Work_from_Nellie_Bly%2C_Trying_to_Be_a_Servant_%281887%29.png)
An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In
developed countries
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency.
Public employment agencies
One of the oldest references to a public employment agency was in 1650, when
Henry Robinson proposed an "Office of Addresses and Encounters" that would link employers to workers.
The British Parliament rejected the proposal, but he himself opened such a business, which was short-lived.
The idea to create public employment agencies as a way to fight unemployment was eventually adopted in developed countries by the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the United Kingdom, the first labour exchange was established by social reformer and employment campaigner
Alsager Hay Hill in London in 1871. This was later augmented by officially sanctioned exchanges created by the
Labour Bureau (London) Act 1902, which subsequently went nationwide, a movement prompted by the Liberal government through the
Labour Exchanges Act 1909
The Labour Exchanges Act 1909 was an Act of Parliament which saw the state-funded creation of labour exchanges, also known as employment exchanges. The stated purpose was to help the unemployed find employment.
Prior to the creation of these gov ...
. The present public provider of job search help is called
Jobcentre Plus
Jobcentre Plus ( cy, Canolfan byd Gwaith; gd, Ionad Obrach is Eile) is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
From 2002 to 2011, Jobcentre Plus was an executive agency which reported directly to the Mini ...
.
In the United States, a federal programme of employment services was rolled out in the
New Deal. The initial legislation was called the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 and more recently job services happen through one-stop centers established by the
Workforce Investment Act The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA, ) was a United States federal law that was repealed and replaced by the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Purpose
The Workforce Investment Act is a federal act that "provides workforce investm ...
of 1998.
In Australia, the first public employment service was set up in 1946, called the
Commonwealth Employment Service
The Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) was an Australian Government employment agency that was established in 1946 with the introduction of the ''Re-establishment and Employment Act 1945'' under the Curtin ALP government. It was designed to ide ...
.
Private employment agency
The first known private employment agency Robinson, Gabbitas & Thring, was founded in 1873 by John Gabbitas who recruited schoolmasters for public schools in England.
In the United States, the first private employment agency was opened by Fred Winslow who started an Engineering Agency in 1893. It later became part of General Employment Enterprises who also owned Businessmen's Clearing House (est. 1902). Another of the oldest agencies was developed by
Katharine Felton
Katharine Conway "Kitty" Felton (July 7, 1873 – August 8, 1940) was the head of Associated Charities in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century.
Felton was born in Oakland, California, on July 7, 1873, the daughter of a prominent San Fra ...
as a response to the problems brought on by the
1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
Many temporary agencies specialize in a particular profession or field of business, such as
accounting,
health care,
technical
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
, or
secretarial
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...
.
Status from the International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization's first ever Recommendation was targeted at fee charging agencies. The Unemployment Recommendation, 1919 (No.1), Art. 1 called for each member to,
"take measures to prohibit the establishment of employment agencies which charge fees or which carry on their business for profit. Where such agencies already exist, it is further recommended that they be permitted to operate only under government licenses, and that all practicable measures be taken to abolish such agencies as soon as possible."
The Unemployment Convention, 1919, Art. 2 instead required the alternative of
"a system of free public employment agencies under the control of a central authority. Committees, which shall include representatives of employers and workers, shall be appointed to advise on matters concerning the carrying on of these agencies."
In 1933 the
Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (No.34) formally called for abolition. The exception was if the agencies were licensed and a fee scale was agreed in advance. In 1949 a
new revised Convention (No.96) was produced. This kept the same scheme, but secured an 'opt out' (Art.2) for members that did not wish to sign up. Agencies were an increasingly entrenched part of the labor market. The United States did not sign up to the Conventions. The latest Convention, the
Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No.181) takes a much softer stance and calls merely for regulation.
In most countries, agencies are regulated, for instance in the UK under the
Employment Agencies Act 1973
The Employment Agencies Act 1973 (c.35) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament and part of a wider body of UK agency worker law. It regulates the conduct of employment agencies which recruit and manage temporary and permanent labour. It applies t ...
, or in Germany under the
''Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz'' (Employee Hiring Law of 1972).
Executive recruitment
An executive-search firm specializes in recruiting executive personnel for companies in various industries. This term may apply to job-search-consulting firms who charge job candidates a fee and who specialize in mid-to-upper-level executives. In the United States, some states require job-search-consulting firms to be licensed as employment agencies.
Some third-party recruiters work on their own, while others operate through an agency, acting as direct contacts between client companies and the job candidates they recruit. They can specialize in client relationships only (sales or business development), in finding candidates (recruiting or sourcing), or in both areas. Most recruiters tend to specialize in either permanent, full-time, direct-hire positions or in contract positions, but occasionally in more than one. In an executive-search assignment, the employee-gaining client company – not the person being hired – pays the search firm its fee.
Executive agent
An executive agent is a type of agency that represents executives seeking senior executive positions which are often unadvertised. In the United Kingdom, almost all positions up to £ ($) a year are advertised and 50% of vacancies paying £ – £ are advertised. However, only 5% of positions which pay more than £ (with the exception of the public sector) are advertised and are often in the domain of around 4,000 executive recruiters in the United Kingdom.
[IR Magazine]
"How do I tap into unadvertised job vacancies for senior positions?"
, ''IR Magazine'', August 6, 2010, accessed April 12, 2010 Often such roles are unadvertised to maintain stakeholder confidence and to overcome internal uncertainties.
Staffing types
Contract, contract-to-hire, temporary, part-time, full-time, GAP staffing (graphic arts professional).
See also
*
Bundesagentur für Arbeit
The Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency, BA) is a German federal agency in the area of responsibility of the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs and has its headquarters in Nuremberg. Its current director is Andrea Na ...
, German federal employment agency
*
Contingent workforce
Contingent work, casual work, or contract work, is an employment relationship with limited job security, payment on a piece work basis, typically part-time (typically with variable hours) that is considered non-permanent. Although there is less j ...
*
Hiring hall
In organized labor, a hiring hall is an organization, usually under the auspices of a labor union, which has the responsibility of furnishing new recruits for employers who have a collective bargaining agreement with the union. It may also refer ...
*
Human resource management
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
*''
Olsen v. Nebraska'', a US legal case concerning compensation issues with private employment agencies
*
Payrolling
A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...
*
Personnel selection
Personnel selection is the methodical process used to hire (or, less commonly, promote) individuals. Although the term can apply to all aspects of the process (recruitment, selection, hiring, onboarding, acculturation, etc.) the most common meani ...
*
Professional employer organization
*
Recruitment
Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...
*
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...
*
Temporary work
Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...
*
UK agency worker law
United Kingdom agency worker law refers to the law which regulates people's work through employment agencies in the United Kingdom. Though statistics are disputed, there are currently between half a million and one and a half million agency worke ...
References
Further reading
*DE Balducchi, RW Eberts, CJ O'Leary (eds),
Labour Exchange Policy in the United States' (
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research 2004)
*P Craig, M Freedland, C Jacqueson and N Kountouris, ''Public Employment Services and European Law'' (2007)
*International Labour Office, ''The role of private employment agencies in the functioning of labour markets'' (Report VI 1994) International Labour Conference 81st Session
*R Kellogg, ''The United States Employment Service'' (University of Chicago Press 1933)
*T Martinez, ''The Human Marketplace: An Examination of Private Employment Agencies'' (Transaction 1976)
*JB Seymour, ''The British Employment Exchange'' (PS King & Son 1928)
{{Authority control
Recruitment
Public employment service