If you are choosing a staffing partner in 2026, the financial health of that partner is part of your risk, not just a footnote. One benchmark from the past year makes the point better than any sales deck: the staffing market split almost in half last year, and the side your partner lands on matters to the work you are trying to get done.
The market split almost in half
In 2025, 42% of staffing agencies lost revenue, according to the 2026 State of Staffing Benchmarking Report. Flip that figure over and it tells the fuller story: the other 58% did not. This was not a quiet year with a few stragglers. It was closer to a coin toss, with a large share of agencies going backward while a slim majority held their ground.
For anyone buying staffing services, that spread is the real headline. You are not choosing from a uniform field of healthy vendors. You are choosing from a market where roughly two in five providers were shrinking.
What the 58% did differently
The report does not stop at the split. Its stated purpose is to show what the other 58% did differently, plus what every operator should be measuring in 2026. The useful takeaway for a buyer sits in that second half: measurement. The agencies that came through the year were the ones tracking the right numbers and acting on them, rather than guessing.
When you evaluate a partner, that gives you a concrete question to ask: what do they measure, how often, and what did they change last year because of it? A provider that can answer plainly is more likely to sit in the 58% than one that cannot.
Why this matters for nearshore hiring
These benchmarks cover staffing broadly, and they set the backdrop for the nearshore model in particular. nearshore.now places vetted professionals from Latin America with US companies in the same working hours, and handles contracts, payroll and compliance on your behalf. In a market where a large share of agencies lost ground, the operational basics, including vetting, time-zone overlap, and clean employment and payment, are what keep an engagement steady rather than fragile.
The point is not that one model is immune to a hard year. It is that the discipline the benchmark rewards, knowing your numbers and running tight operations, is exactly what a buyer should look for in a nearshore partner.
Takeaway
Treat the split as a filter. A sizable part of the staffing market lost revenue in 2025, and the group that held on did it by measuring and managing deliberately. When you pick a nearshore staffing partner, ask what they track and how they run the back office. The answer tells you which side of that line they are on.
Sources
| Figure | Source |
|---|---|
| 42% of staffing agencies lost revenue in 2025; the other 58% did not | 2026 State of Staffing Benchmarking Report |