Everhour tracks assignment hours and approvals, while staffing utilization depends on billed client work versus available field capacity.
Measure billable utilization against total capacity and see exactly how many hours you're leaving on the table each period.
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A staffing-agency utilization rate answers one practical question: how much available temporary or contract worker capacity turned into billed client-assignment hours for the same period. The numerator is hours billed on client assignments. The denominator is available assignment hours for the same workers and dates, after your policy decides how to treat PTO, holidays, bench time, unpaid leave, and scheduled but unfilled shifts.
This calculation should stay separate from internal corporate staff metrics. Recruiters, account managers, and payroll staff do not have the same billable-capacity logic as field employees. ASA uses separate treatment for internal corporate staff and temporary or contract employees in turnover because the populations differ. Staffing utilization needs the same split, or one blended percentage will hide bench cost and internal workload at the same time.
Start with expected assignment capacity, not annual headcount. ASA reports that about 2.2 million temporary and contract employees worked for U.S. staffing companies in an average week in 2024, while about 11 million employees received opportunities over the year. Weekly capacity and annual worker counts measure different things, so they should not be mixed in one utilization denominator.
A U.S. agency often uses a 40-hour week as a gross capacity baseline because federal overtime rules require covered nonexempt employees to receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed 168-hour workweek. The FLSA does not define full-time employment, and it does not require payment for vacations, sick leave, or holidays. Your denominator should follow the worker's expected schedule, assignment terms, and company policy.
Use this formula: billed assignment hours divided by available assignment hours, multiplied by 100. If four contract workers each have 40 available assignment hours in a week, the denominator is 160 hours. If the agency bills clients for 152 of those hours, utilization is 95%. The remaining 8 available hours represent bench time, unfilled schedule time, absence treatment, or another category your policy should name.
Revenue value is a separate layer. If the client bill rate is $42 per hour, the 152 billed hours carry $6,384 of billable revenue before payroll cost, burden, discounts, or write-offs. Gross margin then depends on sales, cost of labor, and spread. ASA benchmarks sales, cost of labor, and gross margin separately from hours billed, so utilization should measure capacity conversion, not profitability.
A single agency-wide percentage can mislead managers because staffing lines use different schedules and role mixes. ASA's occupation mix includes industrial, office-clerical and administrative, professional-managerial, engineering, IT and scientific, and health care staffing. Each line can have different expected schedules, client cancellation patterns, overtime exposure, and fill behavior, so one benchmark should not govern every desk.
Order fill rate and average time to fill orders explain why available capacity remains unbilled, but they are separate metrics. A low fill rate can leave open demand, while low utilization can show available workers without enough billed assignments. Track both, then compare utilization by staffing line, branch, client, and assignment type before changing recruiter targets or accepting lower-margin orders.
A one-off calculation is enough for a spot check, such as confirming whether one weekly cohort reached 95% utilization or whether one client cancellation created 8 unbilled hours. It also works for a quick month-end estimate when your billed hours and available assignment hours already sit in clean reports.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when timesheets need approval, periods need locking, client billing needs consistent source data, or payroll review depends on the same hours. Everhour Time Tracking lets teams capture hours through timers or manual entries, approve timesheets, lock completed periods, and feed the accepted hours into reporting, budgeting, invoicing, and payroll review.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Staffing agencies calculate utilization as billed client-assignment hours divided by available assignment hours for the same temporary or contract workers and period, then multiply by 100. The denominator must follow the agency's policy for PTO, holidays, bench time, unpaid leave, and unfilled schedules. Internal corporate staff should be measured separately from field workers.
Bench time should stay in the denominator when the worker was available for assignment and the agency wants to measure unused billable capacity. Removing bench time makes utilization look cleaner but hides the cost of carrying available workers without billed client hours. Exclude only time that your policy treats as unavailable, such as approved leave or a closed holiday.
There is no single public staffing-agency utilization target. ASA's operations benchmark is peer-based and covers many temporary, contract, and direct-hire metrics, but its public description does not publish one standard percentage for all agencies. Set targets by staffing line, role family, expected schedule, market, and whether the metric covers field talent or internal staff.
Average weekly employment can support workforce ratios, but it does not replace available assignment hours. ASA defines average weekly employment by counting employees in the week including the 12th of each month, summing those 12 counts, and dividing by 12. That creates a headcount proxy, not an hour-based denominator for utilization.
Full-time status affects capacity only through the worker's expected schedule. ASA reports that 73% of staffing employees work full time, but a utilization denominator should not assume every worker has the same 40-hour capacity. Use each worker's scheduled or assignment capacity, then apply the same billed-hours numerator for the matching period.
Everhour Time Tracking captures task and project hours through live timers or manual entries, then routes submitted time through approval before reports, billing, or payroll review. Admins can lock completed periods, send reminders, and configure timer behavior so accepted hours become the source for utilization reporting.
Capture approved staffing hours before utilization turns into guesswork. Everhour Time Tracking gives teams timers, manual entries, approvals, and locked periods that support cleaner billing and payroll review.
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