The biggest staffing company with its headquarters in the Bay Area is Robert Half, based in Menlo Park, and its own location page lists nine offices across the region, from Santa Rosa in the north to San Jose in the south. In the 2026 ranking by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), it earned $2.62 billion in annual US staffing revenue, ninth among all US firms. Most of the other staffing agencies Bay Area employers call are national firms too, and the useful question is less who is biggest than who actually has a desk near your team.
This list covers the wider region, not just the city: San Jose and Silicon Valley, Oakland and the East Bay, the Tri-Valley and the North Bay. Every agency below has an office in the Bay Area that we checked on its own website, and we note where. Some lean toward IT and engineering, some toward temp work in warehouses, front desks and accounting teams. If you only want firms with a San Francisco address, we keep a separate list of staffing agencies in San Francisco. First on the list is our own pick for a different kind of hire: Zilo AI, for remote IT and data talent when the role does not need someone in the building.
Bay Area staffing agencies at a glance
| # | Agency | Best for | Bay Area offices (from the firm’s site) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zilo AI | Remote IT and data talent, AI training data | None; team in Bangalore, India |
| 2 | Robert Half | Finance, accounting, tech, admin and legal across many sites | San Francisco, Oakland, San Mateo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Fremont, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Rosa |
| 3 | TEKsystems | IT contractors at volume | San Francisco, San Jose, Walnut Creek |
| 4 | Apex Systems | IT contract and permanent hiring | San Francisco, Santa Clara |
| 5 | Motion Recruitment | Software and tech roles in Silicon Valley | San Jose, San Francisco |
| 6 | Kforce | Technology and finance professionals | San Ramon |
| 7 | PrideStaff | Temp office, accounting and light industrial staff | San Jose, Pleasanton |
| 8 | Express Employment Professionals | Industrial and skilled trades temps in the southern East Bay | Fremont |
| 9 | Nelson Connects | Temp, temp-to-hire and direct hire in the North Bay | Petaluma |
1. Zilo AI
Zilo AI is not a Bay Area agency, and we would rather say so up front. It is a staffing and data annotation company in Bangalore that hires IT and data talent for companies in India and abroad, on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms, and it can also build a dedicated team that works for one client. For Bay Area companies that is useful in a narrow but common case: the backlog of data engineering, QA, cloud or ML work that does not need anyone on site, where a remote engineer in India can do the job and the time difference lets work move overnight.
Zilo also runs the data side of AI work: data annotation, data collection, transcription, RLHF and AI evaluation. Zilo says it has over 1,600 trained annotation and ASR experts, has annotated more than 10 million data points for industries from retail to BFSI to healthcare, and works in about 26 languages.
Best for: startups and product teams that want remote developers, data engineers or annotation teams without adding Bay Area headcount. See Zilo AI’s IT hiring services.
What to check: Bangalore runs 12.5 to 13.5 hours ahead of Pacific time depending on the season, so agree on overlap hours and a handover routine before the first sprint.
2. Robert Half
Robert Half has the widest local footprint on this list. Its Bay Area page lists offices in San Francisco, Oakland, San Mateo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Fremont, Palo Alto, San Jose and Santa Rosa. Its staffing practices cover finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, and administrative and customer support, with temporary, contract and full-time placements, and its consulting arm takes on project work in the same areas.
Best for: companies hiring in several departments at once, or across more than one Bay Area site.
What to check: which office and which practice will own your search. A firm this broad works best when one recruiter is accountable for your roles rather than whoever picks up the order.
3. TEKsystems
TEKsystems is the IT arm of Allegis Group and the largest IT staffing firm in the US, with $3.92 billion in annual IT staffing revenue in SIA’s 2026 IT ranking. Its locations page lists three Bay Area offices: 221 Main Street in San Francisco, Junction Avenue in San Jose and Oak Road in Walnut Creek. It places contractors and permanent hires across software, infrastructure, data and support roles, and also sells managed IT services.
Best for: engineering and IT teams that need several contractors at once, or a supplier already on a large company’s vendor list.
What to check: whether you want people or a delivered project. TEKsystems will happily sell either, and the contract terms differ.
4. Apex Systems
Apex Systems, now branded Everforth Apex, is an IT staffing and services firm owned by Everforth, the company formerly called ASGN. Its contact page lists a downtown San Francisco office at 301 Howard Street and a San Jose area office at 3945 Freedom Circle in Santa Clara, a short drive from many of the valley’s largest employers. It fills contract, contract-to-hire and permanent technology roles.
Best for: Silicon Valley IT teams that want a large national supplier with a local office in Santa Clara.
What to check: the recruiter’s recent placements in your exact stack. Ask for examples from the last few months rather than a general capabilities deck.
5. Motion Recruitment
Motion Recruitment is a tech recruiting firm whose Silicon Valley office sits at 333 West Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, with a second Bay Area office on Montgomery Street in San Francisco. It recruits software engineers, data specialists, IT staff and technical leaders for contract and full-time roles, and its Silicon Valley page describes it as an IT staffing and recruiting firm focused on tech talent.
Best for: software and product teams in the South Bay hiring developers and data engineers.
What to check: how many active candidates the recruiter has in your stack right now, and how they test technical skills before a resume reaches you.
6. Kforce
Kforce is a Tampa-based professional staffing firm that places technology and finance and accounting talent in flexible and permanent roles. Its East Bay office is at 12647 Alcosta Boulevard in San Ramon. In SIA’s 2026 IT ranking it moved up to third place among US IT staffing firms, with $1.22 billion in IT staffing revenue.
Best for: East Bay and Tri-Valley companies hiring developers, analysts or accountants on contract.
What to check: whether the recruiter handling your role sits in San Ramon or works remotely from another region, and how that affects interview logistics.
7. PrideStaff
PrideStaff is the most temp-focused of the national names here, with two Bay Area offices on its site. PrideStaff San Jose, at 1150 North First Street, says it has served Silicon Valley for more than 25 years and covers towns from Gilroy to Palo Alto. PrideStaff East Bay Tri-Valley, at 5980 Stoneridge Drive in Pleasanton, places temporary and full-time staff across Hayward, Livermore, Fremont, Oakland and San Ramon. Typical roles are administrative, accounting, customer service, warehouse and light industrial.
Best for: employers who need a temp in the next few days, or a temp-to-hire route for office and warehouse roles.
What to check: PrideStaff offices are locally owned, so ask about the specific office’s fill rate and how it screens and trains temps.
8. Express Employment Professionals
Express was the fifth-largest US staffing firm in SIA’s 2026 ranking, with $3.48 billion in US staffing revenue, and it runs through locally owned franchises. Its Bay Area office at 39510 Paseo Padre Parkway in Fremont serves Fremont, Hayward, Union City and Newark, with temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire placements in industrial, skilled trades and office roles, plus a payroll service for workers you have already found.
Best for: manufacturers, warehouses and distributors in the southern East Bay.
What to check: safety training and workers’ compensation cover for industrial temps, and what the markup includes.
9. Nelson Connects
Nelson Connects is the North Bay option, with headquarters at Old Redwood Highway in Petaluma and a Santa Rosa team mentioned by its own clients. It says it has been in business for over 50 years. Its services run from temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire staffing to executive search, employer of record and independent contractor compliance.
Best for: Sonoma and Marin employers, and companies that need help classifying contractors or paying workers they recruited themselves.
What to check: coverage south of the Golden Gate. Nelson is strongest in the North Bay, so confirm reach if your site is in the South Bay.
How to choose a Bay Area staffing agency
Start with geography, because the Bay Area is really several labor markets. A temp for a Fremont warehouse and a contractor for a Palo Alto software team come from different pools, and an agency with an office in the right corner of the region will usually fill faster than one that covers it from San Francisco.
- Temp agencies in the Bay Area for office and warehouse roles: PrideStaff in San Jose or Pleasanton, Express in Fremont, Nelson Connects in the North Bay, or Robert Half for accounting and admin temps.
- IT staffing agencies in the Bay Area: TEKsystems and Apex Systems for volume and large vendor programs, Motion Recruitment for software roles in the South Bay, Kforce for the East Bay.
- Remote engineering, data or annotation work: Zilo AI, with the time difference planned in.
- Several departments at once: Robert Half, which has the most local offices.
Whichever you shortlist, ask each agency for its markup or fee structure in writing, its time to fill on roles like yours over the last quarter, and its replacement guarantee if a placement leaves early. A short paid trial with two agencies on the same role is the quickest way to see who actually delivers. If your search is centered on the city itself, compare these firms with our list of staffing agencies in San Francisco, and if you want to talk through remote hiring from India, contact Zilo AI.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best temp agencies in the Bay Area?
For office, accounting and light industrial temps, PrideStaff (San Jose and Pleasanton), Express Employment Professionals (Fremont), Nelson Connects (Petaluma) and Robert Half (nine Bay Area offices) all list local offices and temporary placements on their own sites. The best choice depends on which part of the region your site is in.
Which IT staffing agencies have offices in the Bay Area?
TEKsystems (San Francisco, San Jose, Walnut Creek), Apex Systems (San Francisco and Santa Clara), Motion Recruitment (San Jose and San Francisco), Kforce (San Ramon) and Robert Half’s technology practice all list Bay Area offices. For remote IT talent from India, Zilo AI is our pick.
How much do Bay Area staffing agencies charge?
Temp and contract staff are usually billed as an hourly rate that includes the worker’s pay plus a markup, while permanent placements are usually a one-time fee tied to first-year salary. Rates vary by role and agency, so get the markup or fee in writing before you sign.
Is a Bay Area agency better than a remote staffing partner?
For on-site roles, yes: a local agency knows the commute patterns, pay rates and candidate pool. For roles that are fully remote, such as many data engineering, QA or annotation jobs, a remote partner like Zilo AI can widen the candidate pool beyond the region, as long as you plan for the time difference.
Are San Francisco staffing agencies different from Bay Area ones?
Many national firms cover both, but several specialist and temp agencies work mainly from San Francisco offices. See our list of staffing agencies in San Francisco for firms with a city address.