UK company counts · Recruitment
Recruitment agencies in the South East
About 7,800 active recruitment agencies are registered in the South East, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 71% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026.
Accounts filed up to 24 October 2026 Register of 1 September 2026
The list behind the number
Which companies these are, with names, company numbers, registered addresses and each dated headcount, is what the report is for. Here they stay hidden.
| Company | Location | Incorporated | Employees |
|---|
One-off payment · no sales call · no account needed · CSV sent to the email you pay with. A report holds the first 1,500 by name; narrow by region or size, or Unlimited holds 5,000 a list.
Growing recruitment agencies in the South East, every Monday
Firmo Weekly: how many recruitment agencies in the South East added staff since their last filed accounts, the searches that find them, and one click to the list. Free, at 08:00 every Monday.
By size: recruitment in the South East
| Employees | Companies | Share | Recruitment, UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro 0 to 9 | about 4,900 | 63% | 58% |
| Small 10 to 49 | about 460 | 6% | 6% |
| Medium 50 to 249 | about 130 | 2% | 2% |
| Large 250 or more | about 20 | under 1% | under 1% |
| No figure filed not known | about 2,200 | 28% | 34% |
| All active companies | about 7,800 | 100% | 100% |
| Grew by 10 or more staff any size | about 90 | 1% | 1% |
Shares are worked out from the rounded counts. No figure filed means the company has not filed a machine-readable headcount: it may be large or small, and it is never counted as zero. A filed 0 is a real answer and sits under micro.
What is counted
- Sector
- Employment activities (division 78): placement and recruitment agencies, temporary staffing agencies, and other provision of staff, including theatrical casting. SIC 2007: division 78 (Employment activities).
- Companies
- Active companies on the Companies House register, placed by registered office postcode, which is approximate near a border. A company with several of these codes counts once.
- Headcounts
- 71% of these companies have an employee count in accounts we have read. The rest are shown as No figure filed, never as zero.
- Dates
- Each company's size is from its latest filed accounts, read up to 24 October 2026. Accounts are filed up to nine months after the year end, so a figure can describe a year that ended some time ago.
- Rounding
- Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and under 20 are shown only as fewer than 10 or fewer than 20, so no count points at a single company. The report is exact.
Questions about these figures
How many recruitment agencies are there in the South East?
About 7,800 active recruitment agencies are registered in the South East, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 71% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and are for active companies only.
How is company size measured?
By the average number of employees each company states in its latest filed accounts, read from the tagged figure in accounts filed electronically. The bands count employees only: micro 0 to 9, small 10 to 49, medium 50 to 249 and large 250 or more. That is not the Companies Act size test, which also uses turnover and balance sheet. 71% of recruitment agencies in the South East have filed a figure; the rest are counted as No figure filed, never as zero.
How up to date is this?
The register is the Companies House snapshot of 1 September 2026, and new accounts are read every day; these figures use accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Each company's headcount is as of its own accounts date, which can be a year or more before the day it was filed.
Can I download the list?
Yes. The list of these companies, with names, company numbers, registered addresses, SIC codes and every headcount with the date of its accounts, is a one-off CSV for £25 (up to 1,500 companies), with no account and no sales call. Unlimited, from £159 a month, allows up to 5,000 companies a list. The free search shows the same count, not which companies.
Which SIC codes count as recruitment?
Employment activities (division 78): placement and recruitment agencies, temporary staffing agencies, and other provision of staff, including theatrical casting. Codes counted: division 78 (Employment activities). A company counts if any of its SIC codes is in the set.