Staffing Agencies: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Robert Half leads the Staffing Agencies index in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 54.1%, holding a 6.4-point gap over the next brand, Randstad, at 47.7%. Measured against the July 2026 baseline, Express Employment Professionals recorded the largest coverage gain, rising from 25.9% to 34.0%, and Spherion recorded the largest coverage decline, falling from 9.4% to 5.3%.

The category shows a mixed pattern against the baseline. Two brands are classified as significant risers and two as significant decliners.

Against the immediately prior month, four brands recorded significant gains in October 2026: Adecco rose 8.0 points, Randstad rose 7.0 points, Robert Half rose 6.9 points, and Kelly Services rose 5.4 points. Those month-over-month gains still leave all four classified as stable, since they largely offset a broad dip recorded across the category in August 2026. The cumulative baseline-to-current pattern remains mixed.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 579 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Staffing Agencies

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt observations qualified for the public benchmark, and how does that differ from the raw collection?
• Why are brand-level percentages based on qualified observations rather than the total prompts collected?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

For full methodology, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which staffing brands lead the October 2026 standings by valid recommendation coverage?
• How do the leading brands differ on rank-one rate and top-three rate?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommendations.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which staffing brand recorded the largest coverage gain since the July 2026 baseline?
• Which brand posted the largest coverage decline, and what happened to its presence and recommendations?
• Why do October's month-over-month gains still leave brands classified as stable against the July baseline?

On a month-over-month basis, October 2026 showed significant gains for four brands measured against September 2026: Adecco rose 8.0 points, Randstad rose 7.0 points, Robert Half rose 6.9 points, and Kelly Services rose 5.4 points. Most tracked brands recovered from the broad August dip, though not enough to shift their baseline classifications.

Largest Increase: Express Employment Professionals

Express Employment Professionals is classified as a significant riser, gaining 8.1 points since the July baseline. Presence rose from 30.3% to 35.6%, and the top-three rate increased 12.5 points from 4.8% to 17.3% over the same period. The rank-one rate rose 5.7 points from 1.2% to 6.9%.

Largest Decline: Spherion

Spherion is classified as a significant decliner, falling 4.1 points from 9.4% to 5.3%. Presence fell from 10.2% to 5.5%. The brand recorded only 31 valid recommendations in October 2026, down from 47 in July. Despite the coverage decline, Spherion's top-three rate increased 1.8 points from 0.8% to 2.6%.

Category Leader: Robert Half

Robert Half remains the category leader in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 54.1%, ahead of Randstad at 47.7% and Adecco at 44.6%. Robert Half also leads in rank-one rate at 17.1%. The brand's leadership position has been stable across all four measured months.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do Robert Half, Randstad, and Adecco differ in first-position versus top-three placement?
• What does the placement data reveal that coverage percentages alone do not show?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, Robert Half holds the strongest first-position placement, while Randstad shows a higher top-three rate despite lower overall coverage.

Close coverage levels can still hide very different first-position rates. Randstad posts a top-three rate above Robert Half but a rank-one rate more than 5 points lower, and Adecco's 4.7% rank-one rate remains well below its coverage level.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• What type of buyer-intent queries make up the current qualified observations?
• Are pricing and multi-brand comparison queries included in this benchmark yet?

All qualified observations in the current series fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery only. Pricing and comparison questions have no qualified signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Has the coverage leader changed across the four measured months?
• Which staffing brand recorded the largest single-month coverage movement, and when?

Robert Half has held the coverage lead in all four measured months, but its August swing of 27.7 points shows how volatile a single month can be.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What information is retained for each prompt-level observation in the benchmark?
• Does a source appearing in AI citations prove it caused the recommendation?

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment — not proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

Questions This Section Answers

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or attributable sales
• Every possible AI response a model could generate
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

No metric in this benchmark should be read as proof of causality.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses?
• Which staffing brands appear among the top cited domains, and which platforms cite them?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,063 citations were observed, citing 1,362 unique domains.

No single domain exceeds 7% share, and the top 10 collectively account for roughly 29% of citations. Three tracked brands have their own domains in the top 10: roberthalf.com, adecco.com, and expresspros.com. Job boards and community platforms feature prominently alongside official brand sites, meaning third-party sources carry substantial weight in this category.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated responses across the six canonical AI/search surface families. Each monthly measurement follows the same research protocol, allowing consistent comparison over time.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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