UK SIC 2007 · 78109
Other activities of employment placement agencies (SIC code 78109)
Other activities of employment placement agencies is UK SIC code 78109. It sits in division 78 (Employment activities) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 29,676 active UK companies list 78109 among their SIC codes. 24,143 of them list it first. That makes it the most used code in its division.
Division 78: Employment activities
This division covers the recruitment industry in all its forms. Permanent placement agencies use 78109. Temporary staffing businesses use 78200. Code 78300 covers human resources provision. Umbrella companies, payroll vehicles and staff outsourcing arrangements all use it, alongside genuine HR providers. Respect the split when you build a list. A 78200 company runs candidates on its own payroll and carries the compliance burden that brings. Many 78109 companies are one recruiter working from a laptop.
Who prospects SIC 78109 companies
Recruitment firms buy a deep stack for their size. They need job board credits, sourcing tools, CRM and ATS platforms, invoice finance to cover contractor payroll, and back-office outsourcing. Funders watch 78200 incorporations most closely. A temp agency needs working capital from its first placement. A brand new 78109 company usually means an experienced consultant has gone solo. That is prime timing for software and finance offers. Young agencies often launch with a thin website, so pair the poor-website filter with incorporation date rather than reading it as a dead company.
Lead generation for recruiters →How to read SIC 78109
SIC 78109 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 78, are the division, employment activities. Add the third and you have group 781; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section N, administrative and support service activities, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 78109 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 78109 are London (7,603), Birmingham (736), Manchester (639), Leeds (454) and Bristol (415). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 78109 as a filter
29,676 companies is 0.57 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 78109 most used of the 4 codes we track in division 78. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
24,143 companies put 78109 first and a further 5,533, 19 per cent, list it in one of their other three SIC slots. That gap is the difference between a tight list and a broad one. First-code-only is the safer filter when you are writing to them; matching any position is worth it when you need the volume.
These companies are spread out. London is the largest single cluster at 26 per cent and the top five post towns together hold only 33 per cent, so the remaining 67 per cent sits across the rest of the country. A regional filter narrows this list without gutting it, which makes it a reasonable code to work territory by territory.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 78109 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 78109, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 29,676 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 78109 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 78109 companies, as leads
Live rows from the enriched register. Email and phone values are withheld until you sign up.
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About SIC 78109
How many UK companies use SIC code 78109?
29,676 active UK companies list 78109 (Other activities of employment placement agencies) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 24,143 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
What is the difference between SIC codes 78109 and 78200?
Code 78109 covers placement agencies. They introduce candidates for permanent roles and earn a fee on hire. Code 78200 covers temporary agencies. They employ or engage workers, supply them to clients, and invoice for the hours worked. Cash flow and compliance differ sharply between the two. Agencies doing both usually register both codes. Companies House allows up to 4 per company, amendable on any confirmation statement.
Does a recruitment agency need a licence to operate in the UK?
In most sectors, no. Agencies must follow the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations. The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate enforces them. There is one exception. Supplying workers into sectors covered by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, such as agriculture and food processing, needs a GLAA licence. None of this is connected to your SIC code.
Find UK SIC 78109 companies
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