Hiring
Randstad, the Netherlands-based staffing company, said Wednesday, Oct. 21, that revenue in its U.S. operational business, which places workers in largely blue-collar roles, rose 19% in the third quarter from a year earlier. It was the fastest growth among the four U.S. business lines the company reported, and it helped North America’s revenue growth more than double from the prior quarter’s pace.
Revenue growth at a staffing company is not the same as hiring growth. Randstad’s figures measure what clients paid for its services; they do not say how many more people the company placed, and it did not disclose U.S. placement or worker counts.
The U.S. numbers
According to Randstad’s third-quarter results release, revenue in North America rose 9% year over year in the quarter, up from 4% growth in the second quarter. Revenue across the company’s combined U.S. businesses grew 10%, compared with 5% in the second quarter. Within the U.S., the operational unit was up 19%, professional staffing was up 3%, digital was flat and the enterprise unit was up 4%. Canadian revenue fell 2%.
North America generated 1.196 billion euros of third-party revenue in the quarter, up from 1.085 billion euros a year earlier. The region’s EBITA margin, a measure of operating profitability, was 5.3%, up from 4.6%.
The global picture
Across the group, organic revenue per working day rose 3.9% in the third quarter, an improvement from 1.9% growth in the second quarter and a 1.2% decline a year earlier. Revenue totaled 6.115 billion euros, compared with 5.810 billion euros in the third quarter of 2025. Underlying EBITA rose to 211 million euros from 191 million euros, and net income rose 33% to 110 million euros.
Growth was uneven. Revenue per working day rose 5% in Germany, 3% in the Netherlands, 7% in Italy and 8% in Iberia, while France fell 3% and Belgium and Luxembourg fell 5%. Worldwide, Randstad’s operational specialization grew 6%, while professional staffing fell 1% and digital fell 2%.
Fees for permanent hiring declined. Randstad said permanent placement fees fell 4% organically, to 95 million euros, while fees from recruitment process outsourcing rose 4%, to 84 million euros.
“Organic revenue increased 3.9% with double-digit profit growth,” Chief Executive Sander van ‘t Noordende said in the release, adding that “with improving October trends” the company is “well-positioned to drive further meaningful progress.” In its outlook, Randstad said activity and volumes improved through the quarter and that it saw further improvement in early October.
Randstad’s own workforce did not grow. Average headcount was 37,010 full-time equivalents in the quarter, organically down 3% from a year earlier and flat from the second quarter, and the company said one-off costs of 14 million euros mainly reflected restructurings in various countries.
Investors welcomed the results. Reuters reported that analysts had expected 2.9% organic growth and that Randstad shares rose 20% in Amsterdam on Wednesday morning.
What it means for U.S. job seekers
The strength in U.S. operational staffing points to firmer client demand in a segment Reuters described as broadly covering blue-collar roles, but official data show a flatter picture across the whole industry. Seasonally adjusted employment in temporary help services, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 2,486,800 in September 2026, according to preliminary figures. That was about 15,200 higher than in September 2025, but roughly 10,900 below August’s preliminary level.
For workers seeking temporary blue-collar jobs, Randstad’s results suggest some of its U.S. clients were buying more staffing services in the July-September quarter. Because the company reports revenue rather than placements, and because BLS temporary-help employment slipped in September, the results are better read as one firm’s improving business than as evidence of a broad rebound in temp hiring.
Sources
- Randstad N.V., “Q3 2026: continued top-line momentum drives double-digit profit growth” (interim financial statements), October 21, 2026. https://www.randstad.com/s3fs-media/rscom/public/2026-10/Q3_2026_Press_Release.pdf
- Reuters via Euronext, “Randstad tops revenue expectations as key labour markets improve,” October 21, 2026. https://live.euronext.com/en/financial-news/randstad-tops-revenue-expectations-key-labour-markets-improve
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, temporary help services employment, seasonally adjusted (CES6056132001), accessed October 21, 2026. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES6056132001
Featured photo: A Randstad temporary-staffing office on Avenida de la Constitución in Coslada, near Madrid, Spain, April 16, 2025. Representative image; not a U.S. Randstad office. Photo: Lojwe, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Cropped from the original.
