Staffing agency license in North Dakota: job-seeker fees, PEO bonds and the WSI account

North Dakota still licenses employment agencies, but the license reaches a narrow group: agencies with a physical location in the state that charge job seekers. Chapter 34-13 of the North Dakota Century Code requires those agencies to hold a $200 annual license from the labor commissioner and post a $5,000 bond, while firms that charge only employers and temporary staffing firms that act as the real employer of their workers are excluded. For most staffing firms, the filings that matter are elsewhere: a Secretary of State license if you co-employ a client's workforce, and a Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI) account set up the way North Dakota's staffing statute requires.

This page covers who needs the license and what it involves, the limits on charging job seekers, PEO licensing, the state of health care staffing rules, and the employer accounts a North Dakota staffing firm needs. For other states, see employment agency license requirements.

Who needs the employment agency license

N.D.C.C. 34-13-01(4) defines an employment agency as anyone in North Dakota "engaged for hire or compensation" in giving job seekers information or other service that helps them find work with an employer other than the agency, or giving employers information that helps them find help. It then excludes three groups:

• Temporary staffing firms that employ people to provide part-time or temporary services to a third party, as long as the firm, in addition to wages, pays social security and unemployment insurance taxes, provides workforce safety and insurance coverage, and is responsible for the workers' acts while on assignment.
• Employer-paid firms: anyone "charging service fees or any other charges exclusively to employers."
• Providers licensed or certified by the Department of Health and Human Services to deliver employment-related services, to the extent they serve the clientele named in that license or certificate.

Section 34-13-02 adds a geographic limit: the license is required of a person who opens or carries on an employment agency "if that person has a physical presence or location within the state." The Department of Labor and Human Rights says the license applies to a permanent-placing agency that "charges fees of any kind to applicants/employees," and that exclusively employer-paid and temporary-only agencies are not subject to licensure or the rest of the chapter. It will give a determination if you ask.

The temporary staffing exclusion is conditional: a firm that runs workers as 1099 contractors does not meet it and must rely on charging only employers. Keep any conversion fee on the client side; see temp-to-perm conversion fee.

What the license requires

• Application. Under 34-13-03, filed annually and notarized, with owners, manager, office address, prior agency history and three in-state references, plus a schedule of fees the agency may not exceed.
• Fee and term. 34-13-04 sets a $200 annual fee, and 34-13-07 makes the license good for one year. The department says the license period matches the date of the agency's bond.
• Bond. 34-13-05 requires a $5,000 bond, conditioned on obeying the chapter and the agency's contracts. Anyone harmed by a breach can sue on it.
• Contracts. The department asks for copies of all contracts used with job seekers and with employers, and 34-13-13.1(2) makes a contract or fee between an agency and a job seeker invalid without the commissioner's written approval.
• Penalties. Operating without a license is a class B misdemeanor under 34-13-02; most other violations are class A misdemeanors under 34-13-16. Under N.D.C.C. 12.1-32-01, those carry maximums of 30 days and $1,500, and 360 days and $3,000. The commissioner can also suspend or revoke a license (34-13-08).

Limits on charging job seekers

If you do charge candidates, chapter 34-13 regulates the fee closely:

• No registration fees. Section 34-13-15(2) bars any application or registration fee for being listed as an applicant.
• Written contract. Section 34-13-13 requires a written contract with each applicant showing the service charge and payment terms, with definitions of "accept," "method of payment" and the charge for a permanent position that ends within 90 calendar days.
• The 90-day refund. Under 34-13-13.1, if the job ends or the worker is fired or laid off within 90 calendar days, the worker gets back all service charges above 20 percent of the gross wages actually received. The refund does not apply if the worker never starts, quits voluntarily or is fired for gross misconduct. Contracts with a service charge of $100 or less are outside this section.
• Conduct. No false job ads, disclosure of any known strike or lockout, and no inducing a placed worker to leave (34-13-15). Splitting a job seeker's fee with the employer is a class A misdemeanor.

PEO licensing with the Secretary of State

N.D.C.C. chapter 43-55 requires anyone providing professional employer services, meaning an ongoing co-employment relationship with a client's workforce, to be licensed by the Secretary of State, whatever name it uses. The Secretary of State says this applies "even if the PEO has only one employee in North Dakota."

Section 43-55-01(8) excludes temporary help services, so a temp firm needs no PEO license; a firm that takes over a client's existing staff under a long-term co-employment agreement does.

Health care staffing: no license, after a failed 2025 bill

As of October 2026, North Dakota has no license or registration specific to nurse or health care staffing agencies. An August 2023 Legislative Council background memorandum for the interim Health Care Committee, prepared for the contract nursing study ordered by House Bill 1476 (2023), stated that "North Dakota does not have any statutory provisions that pertain to contract nursing."

That committee then sponsored Senate Bill 2031 for the 2025 session. It would have required nursing services agencies to be licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services, with a $2,000 application fee and $1 million per occurrence and $3 million aggregate in malpractice and general liability coverage. The Senate defeated it on February 3, 2025, by 3 votes to 43. An earlier attempt, House Bill 1455 (2015), was introduced as a nurse staffing agency licensing bill and enacted only as a study.

Facilities still set credentialing and insurance demands by contract; see staffing agency insurance requirements.

Workers' compensation through WSI

North Dakota has no private workers' compensation market. Workforce Safety and Insurance describes itself as "the sole provider and administrator" of the system, so a staffing firm cannot buy a policy from a carrier for its North Dakota workers. Section 65-01-08 sets staffing-specific rules:

• A firm providing only temporary staffing is the employer, keeps a WSI account in its own name and reports those workers' wages annually.
• Temporary staffing means assigning your own employees to supplement a client's workforce for an absence, a temporary skill shortage, a seasonal workload or a project with a target end date. It does not include arrangements where most of a client's workforce has been assigned for more than 12 consecutive months.
• Other staffing services, including PEOs, report payroll by client and notify WSI of each client agreement, and its end, within 15 days.

Other employer accounts

• Unemployment insurance with Job Service North Dakota; the temp firm is the employer of record for its temps.
• Income tax withholding with the Office of State Tax Commissioner, and Secretary of State registration for an out-of-state entity.
• Noncompetes. N.D.C.C. 9-08-06 voids any contract restraining someone from a lawful profession or trade, with narrow exceptions for selling a business or exiting a partnership, so a noncompete in a temp's agreement is unlikely to hold. Whether a client-side no-hire clause counts as a restraint is a question for counsel.

The full setup sequence is in how to start a staffing agency. Next door, Minnesota repealed its agency license in 2015 but kept some fee rules (see staffing agency license in Minnesota), and farther south, Nebraska repealed its license in 2020 and adds health care staffing registration in 2027 (see staffing agency license in Nebraska).

A North Dakota checklist

NORTH DAKOTA CHECK — [date] — owner: [name]

Model:
  [ ] Employer-paid only (incl. conversion fees): no 34-13 license
  [ ] Temp staffing: pay SS/UI taxes, WSI coverage, responsible
      for workers -> excluded
  [ ] Any job-seeker fee + ND location: DOLHR license ($200/yr),
      $5,000 bond, approved contracts, no registration fee,
      90-day refund above 20% of wages

PEO / co-employment:
  [ ] Secretary of State license ($1,000; $500 renewal)
  [ ] Bond: lesser of $100,000 or 5% of quarterly wages

Health care facilities:
  [ ] No state agency license (SB 2031 failed, 2025)

Employer accounts:
  WSI account (staffing rules, 65-01-08); Job Service ND UI;
  withholding; SOS registration                          [ ]
Next review: [date]

Re-check after the 2027 legislative session, since health care staffing licensing has been proposed twice, and any time you start charging candidates or open an office in the state.