In 2003, earnings among nonsupervisory workers in employment services firms were $13.04 per hour and $425 per week, lower than the $14.95 an hour and $506 a week for all private industry.

Earnings vary as widely as the range of skills and formal education among workers in employment services. As in other industries, managers and professionals earn more than clerks and laborers. Also, temporaries usually earn less than workers employed as permanent staff, but some experienced temporaries make as much as or more than workers in similar occupations in other industries.

Most permanent workers receive basic benefits; temporary workers usually do not receive such benefits unless they work a minimum number of hours or days per week to qualify for benefit plans. Less than 3 percent of workers in employment services are union members or are covered by union contracts, compared with about 15 percent of workers in all industries combined.