An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In all developed countries there is a publicly funded employment agency and multiple private businesses which also act as employment agencies.

The first private employment agency in the United States was opened by Fred Winslow who opened Engineering Agency in 1893.[citation needed] It later became part of General Employment Enterprises who also owned Businessmen’s Clearing House (est. 1902). Another of the oldest agencies was developed by Katharine Felton as a response to the problems brought on by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:

“A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed.”