What Is Express Employment Professionals and How Does It Work?

Express Employment Professionals is one of the largest staffing agencies in the United States, operating as a temporary and permanent employment placement service. If you're exploring staffing options—whether you're a job seeker looking for work or an employer trying to fill positions—understanding what this company does and how it operates will help you evaluate whether it fits your needs.

How Express Employment Professionals Works

Express Employment Professionals operates as a staffing intermediary: it connects job seekers with employers looking to fill open positions. The company maintains physical locations across the country and also handles placements through digital channels.

The basic workflow differs depending on which side of the transaction you're on:

For job seekers: You contact a local Express Employment office, complete an application, and go through a screening process. The agency then matches your skills and availability with open positions their client companies have posted. You may be placed in temporary assignments (lasting days to months) or referred for permanent, direct-hire positions where the client company becomes your employer.

For employers: Businesses contact Express Employment to fill staffing gaps. The agency handles recruiting, screening, and initial vetting—reducing the employer's time investment in the hiring process. The employer pays the agency a fee (typically a percentage of the employee's wages for temporary placements, or a one-time placement fee for permanent hires).

Types of Placements Available

Express Employment Professionals offers different placement categories, and understanding the distinction matters because it affects your job security, benefits eligibility, and income structure.

Temporary Assignments

In temporary placements, you work directly for Express Employment Professionals as an employee, and the agency assigns you to work at client company locations. The client company supervises your day-to-day work, but Express Employment remains your official employer.

Key characteristics:

• Assignments can last anywhere from a single day to several months
• Pay is typically hourly
• You may receive benefits through Express Employment (such as health insurance) depending on hours worked and tenure, though this varies by state and assignment length
• Assignments can end with minimal notice if the client's needs change

Permanent Direct-Hire Placements

For permanent positions, Express Employment refers you directly to a client company. Once hired, that company becomes your employer, not the staffing agency. The agency's role ends after the placement is made.

Key characteristics:

• You become a regular employee of the hiring company
• Standard employment terms, benefits, and protections apply
• You have the job security typical of direct employment
• Express Employment's involvement is complete once you're hired

What Affects Your Experience

Several factors shape how your interaction with Express Employment Professionals plays out:

Your skills and background. Agencies maintain databases of open positions matched to skill levels. If you have in-demand technical skills, certifications, or specialized experience, you'll likely have more placement options and potentially higher pay rates. If you're seeking entry-level or general labor work, placements are typically more abundant but may offer lower wages.

Local market conditions. Express Employment operates through franchised locations, each serving a specific geographic area. The quality of available positions, pay rates, and job density in your region depend on local labor demand. A busy metropolitan area will have more options than a rural region.

Assignment length and your flexibility. Temporary placements work best for people who can tolerate uncertainty or who actively want flexible, short-term work. If you need steady income from a single employer, temporary assignments create instability unless you're consistently offered renewals or back-to-back assignments.

Timing. How quickly Express Employment can place you depends on current demand, your willingness to accept available positions, and the skills you offer. Some people are placed within days; others wait weeks if they're selective about opportunities.

Temporary vs. Permanent: A Practical Comparison

Cost Considerations

If you're a job seeker, Express Employment typically doesn't charge you directly for placement services—the staffing business model passes costs to employers. However, you should understand how agencies make money, because it affects the incentives at play.

For temporary placements: The agency profits from the margin between what the client company pays for your labor and what they pay you. This creates an incentive for the agency to place you quickly, but not necessarily in roles that maximize your long-term earning potential.

For permanent placements: The agency typically collects a one-time fee from the hiring company—often 15% to 25% of the employee's first-year salary, though rates vary. This model incentivizes good matches, since the agency only gets paid once the hire is successful.

As an employer, you would pay these fees directly, which is a trade-off against the time and cost of recruiting independently.

What to Evaluate When Considering Express Employment

Before deciding whether to work with or through Express Employment Professionals, consider:

Your employment goals. Are you seeking temporary income to bridge a gap, or do you need stable employment? Temporary placements suit different needs than permanent roles.

Your flexibility tolerance. Temporary assignments require adaptability around assignment end dates and shift schedules. Some people thrive in this environment; others find it stressful.

Local availability. Not all areas have Express Employment locations with equal resources. The strength of your local office—measured by the number of active job orders and quality of positions—varies significantly.

Your skills and market value. Staffing agencies work best when they can quickly match your abilities to available openings. Highly specialized roles may be underserved by general staffing agencies; niche agencies might be more effective.

Alternative options. Direct applications to employers, industry-specific job boards, and other staffing agencies may offer placements that better suit your circumstances, pay rates, or timeline.

The Bottom Line

Express Employment Professionals is a conventional staffing agency with a national footprint. It can serve legitimate purposes—filling income gaps with temporary work, testing a role before committing to permanent employment, or helping employers quickly source talent. The value you get depends entirely on whether the types of positions it offers, the pay rates available in your market, and the employment structure (temporary vs. permanent) align with what you're actually looking for.

The key is understanding what you need from a job or hire, then evaluating whether this particular agency's offerings and local presence make it the right fit for that need.