Staffing Industry Glossary

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Software that manages candidates and job orders through the hiring pipeline, from sourcing and screening to placement.

Bill Rate

The hourly rate a staffing agency charges the client for a placed worker.

Pay Rate

The hourly wage the agency pays the worker, before employer taxes and burden.

Spread

The dollar difference between the bill rate and the pay rate — gross profit per hour before overhead.

Markup

The spread expressed as a percentage of the pay rate: (bill − pay) ÷ pay.

Gross Margin

The spread expressed as a percentage of the bill rate: (bill − pay) ÷ bill.

Payroll Burden

Employer-side costs on top of wages — FICA, FUTA/SUTA, workers' compensation, and benefits — usually adding 12–25% to the base wage.

Fully-Burdened Cost

The true hourly cost of a worker: wage plus payroll burden — the number a bill rate must clear before there's any margin.

Active Placement

A worker actually on assignment in a given period — one with a pay stub, logged hours, or an active job order.

Job Order

A client's request to fill one or more positions, with the role, rate, location, and requirements the agency staffs against.

Direct Hire

A permanent placement where the client hires the candidate directly and pays the agency a one-time fee, typically 15–25% of first-year salary.

Temp-to-Hire

An arrangement where a worker starts as a temporary employee of the agency and the client can convert them to a permanent hire, often after a set period.

Conversion (Buyout) Fee

The fee a client pays to convert a temp worker to a permanent hire.

Placement Fee

The one-time fee for a direct-hire placement, calculated as a percentage of the candidate's first-year salary.

Blended (Weighted-Average) Rate

When a worker performs two jobs at different pay rates in a week, the FLSA regular rate used for overtime: total straight-time pay ÷ total hours.

Fill Rate

The share of job orders an agency successfully fills — a core measure of recruiting effectiveness.

Time-to-Fill

The elapsed time from opening a job order to placing a worker in it.

Redeployment

Placing a worker on a new assignment when their current one ends, keeping good workers active and reducing sourcing cost.

Master Services Agreement (MSA)

The umbrella contract between a staffing agency and a client that sets bill rates, payment terms, and liability before any workers are placed.

Applicable Large Employer (ALE)

An employer with 50+ full-time-equivalent employees, triggering the ACA's employer mandate to offer health coverage or pay a penalty.

ACA Full-Time Employee

Under the ACA, anyone averaging 30+ hours a week (or 130+ hours a month) — a different, often lower, bar than a state's own full-time definition.

Gross Profit Per Recruiter

Total gross profit (spread across all placements) divided by headcount of recruiters — a core productivity benchmark for staffing agencies.

Put these to work: the markup calculator, bill rate calculator, and blended-rate overtime calculator turn these terms into numbers.