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The existence of recruitment business can be traced as early as the 15th century, when Englishmen practiced brokering in behalf of employers who do not have easy access to laborers. These brokers recruited people to work for a certain period in exchange for benefits ranging from free passage to the New World to provision of food and lodging.

In the modern day era, recruitment agencies are the employers’ external human resources partner, providing a variety of services to businesses. These include matching employee qualifications to employer’s requirements, supplying other businesses with temporary workers, and providing other human resources services to clients.

The advent of the dot-com and the boom in technology made the recruitment industry one of the most thriving businesses in the 1990s, placing approximately three million workers in the workforce. Coupled with the government efforts to provide more employment and the growing market for professionals on short-term basis, staffing services more than doubled between the years 1994 and 2000.

The slowing down of the US economy and the terrorist attacks in the early part of year 2000, however, affected the recruitment industry. With the economic crunch, more companies adopted streamlining measures which resulted to layoffs and downsizing. As such, employment agencies have an excessive inventory of potential employees with not enough or no business clients at all.