Staffing agency license in New York: state and NYC rules

New York licenses employment agencies under a statute broad enough to cover most fee-based placement work, regardless of who pays the fee. Article 11 of the General Business Law requires a license from the Department of Labor for any person who procures employment for a fee, and agencies located inside New York City hold a separate city license instead. A temporary staffing firm that directly employs the workers it assigns has a stated exception inside the city, but the state statute is not limited to job-seeker-paid fees, so a search firm should get a written answer rather than assume it is exempt.

This page sets out the New York State license (fee, bond, renewal, application steps), the separate New York City license, who is exempt, and what happens if you place candidates without one. It builds on employment agency license requirements, which compares New York against four other states; this page goes deeper on New York alone.

The statute and who administers it

New York's employment agency law is General Business Law Article 11, starting at § 171. Section 171 defines an employment agency as any person who, for a fee, procures or attempts to procure employment for persons seeking employment, or employees for employers, or who gives information about where such employment may be procured. "Fee" is defined broadly to include anything of value charged, collected, received, paid or promised for the agency's services. The statute's own list of exclusions covers narrow categories, such as certain professional society and nonprofit placement bureaus; it does not exclude agencies paid only by the employer.

Outside New York City, the New York State Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards, issues the license. Its own description of an employment agency centers on charging "a fee for the placement of a candidate in employment with a third-party employer," which reaches most contingency and retained search work whether the invoice goes to the employer or the candidate. Inside the five boroughs, the license comes from the city instead (below).

Who needs a license, and the exceptions that exist

If your firm procures employment for a fee and operates outside New York City, plan to hold a state license unless you have a specific written exception from the Department of Labor. Categories to check on your own facts:

• Direct-hire and retained search, employer-paid. The statute's definition is not limited to fees from job seekers, so do not assume employer-paid search is automatically outside it. Ask the Division of Labor Standards for a written answer.
• Temporary and contract staffing. The state page does not spell out a blanket exception the way New York City's checklist does. Confirm your model directly.
• Theatrical and modeling agencies, and domestic or household help recruited from abroad. These are named categories inside the law and carry the higher $10,000 bond described below rather than an exemption.
• Nurse registries. Confirm separately; nursing placement is frequently treated as its own category under New York's licensing and health regulations rather than folded into general employment agency rules.

Applying for the state license

The Division of Labor Standards' guidance for new applicants (form LS 355.3) lays out the steps:

1. Complete the application (form LS 355) in full, front and back.
2. Fingerprints. Every principal of the agency, and the agency placement manager if not a principal, must be fingerprinted at a Department-designated vendor location in New York State.
3. License fee. A certified check or money order payable to the Commissioner of Labor; personal checks are not accepted (see fee table below).
4. Surety bond. $5,000, or $10,000 for agencies recruiting domestic or household help from outside the continental United States or operating a modeling agency, payable to the People of the State of New York, under GBL §§ 177–178.
5. Statements of character. Two per applicant, on form LS 361.
6. Child support statement. Form GO 1, required of the individual owner or each partner (not required of corporations), under General Obligations Law § 3-503.
7. Site inspection. The Department inspects the agency's premises before issuing a license, under GBL §§ 174.1 and 174.4.

A separate license is required for each physical location.

Fees, bond and renewal

All New York State employment agency licenses run on the same two-year cycle, expiring May 1 of every even-numbered year, regardless of when in the cycle you apply; the fee is prorated for the time remaining. As of September 2026, the Department of Labor's published fee schedule is:

If an application is withdrawn or a license denied, 50 percent of the fee is refundable. The bond is $5,000, or $10,000 for the two named higher-risk categories described above. See LS 355.3 and GBL §§ 177–178.

New York City has its own license

An agency located inside the five boroughs is licensed by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), not the state Department of Labor. DCWP's license checklist states the license is required to provide job placement assistance for a fee, and lists exceptions that include staffing agencies where the agency itself is the employer, and employer-paid executive search firms that never charge applicants. As of September 2026 it listed:

• A surety bond of $5,000 for most agencies, rising to $10,000 for certain agencies recruiting domestic workers from abroad and for modeling agencies.
• A two-year license expiring May 1 of even years, the same cycle as the state license.
• Sample contracts required for each class of employment the agency places into.
• Fingerprinting for principals, and required postings including the Job Hunter's Bill of Rights.

The practical read: a New York City search firm has a named exception to check its facts against; the same firm operating from an office in, say, Westchester or Buffalo does not have that stated exception and should confirm its position with the state Department of Labor in writing.

Fees you can charge candidates

Where a New York agency does charge job seekers, GBL Article 11 regulates the contract, fee disclosure and refund terms rather than leaving them to negotiation. Most professional recruiting and staffing firms charge the employer only, which is also the practical reason many of them still choose to confirm their licensing position rather than test the statute's language. If your firm charges applicants anything, get the contract terms reviewed against Article 11 before you use it, since the requirements are specific to New York and differ from a standard employer-side fee agreement covered in how to negotiate recruitment fees.

Operating without a license

GBL Article 11 makes it unlawful to open, keep, maintain, own, operate or carry on an employment agency without first procuring a license. The New York State Department of Labor states that an agency or agent found in violation of Article 11, or of Article 37 (which covers related conduct), is subject to fines and to suspension or revocation of the license. Placing candidates into New York from an unlicensed desk, or continuing to place after a license lapses, is the exposure to close before you expand into the state, not after your first placement fee is challenged.

A checklist before you open a New York desk

NEW YORK LICENSING CHECK — [state/NYC] — [date] — owner: [name]

Where is the office?
  [ ] Outside NYC — apply to NYS Department of Labor
  [ ] Inside NYC — apply to DCWP instead

Our model:
  [ ] Direct hire / retained search, employer-paid
  [ ] Contract or temp staffing, we employ the worker
  [ ] Modeling / domestic-from-abroad (higher bond category)
  [ ] Charge fees to candidates (Article 11 fee/contract rules apply)

Written confirmation on our exemption, if any:
  Asked:   [DOL or DCWP contact, date]
  Answer:  [summary, file the reply]

Application (NYS):
  LS 355 completed                 [ ]
  Fingerprints (all principals)    [ ]
  LS 361 statements of character   [ ]
  GO 1 child support statement     [ ]
  Bond: $5,000 / $10,000 filed     [ ]
  Fee paid: $[amount] for [term]   [ ]
  Site inspection scheduled        [ ]

Renewal: due by May 1, [even year]
Next review: [date]

Re-check this before you open a second location; a separate license is required for each one, and the state and city regimes do not substitute for each other.

What else to line up around the license

• Business registration. An employment agency license does not replace registering to do business in New York or, for an out-of-state company, foreign qualification with the Department of State. Both run on their own timelines and filings.
• Candidate consent to submission. Not a licensing requirement, but the paper trail that protects a fee when a client disputes it. See the right to represent template.
• Background checks. If your desk orders consumer reports for clients, the FCRA steps in the FCRA background check process apply on top of any state licensing.
• Recording and consent. New York is a one-party consent state for recording calls, but screening candidates by phone and video across state lines means the strictest jurisdiction on the call still governs. The consent guide covers this by state.
• Nurse registries and other specialty placement. Nursing and home health staffing sit under separate health-licensing rules in New York in addition to, or instead of, the general employment agency license; confirm the specific regime with the Department of Health before treating a nurse registry as a standard agency.

None of this changes month to month, but a firm that expands from direct hire into contract staffing, or starts charging candidates a fee it did not charge before, has changed its facts and should re-run the checklist above rather than assume the original answer from the Department of Labor still applies.