Recruiters put a number on it more often than employers do
We tag each posting as coming from a staffing agency or recruiter, or from the employer directly, and compare how often each side states pay. Agencies are a small slice of the index — and a noticeably more transparent one. We report the measured difference, not the motive.
Key figures
| Measure | ||
|---|---|---|
| Postings from agencies or recruiters | 5.9% | of everything we index |
| Agency postings that state pay | 20.3% | against 11.5% across all postings |
| Difference between the two | 8.8 points | measured, not causal |
| Ranges wider than $50k (all postings) | 12.1% | a range, but not a usable one |
Frequently asked
Do recruiters disclose pay more often than employers?
In our index, yes: 20.3% of agency and recruiter postings state a pay figure, against 11.5% across all postings.
How is a posting tagged as coming from an agency?
From the employer name (recruiting, staffing, personnel, placement, headhunting, and a list of known agencies) and from applicant-tracking systems used mainly by staffing firms. Everything else counts as a direct employer — so the agency share is a floor, not a ceiling.
Does this mean agencies are more honest?
No. It measures who writes a number into the ad. Agencies often recruit for roles where the client has already set the band, and some markets require disclosure. We report the difference, not the reason.
Press, research and custom cuts: [email protected] · Cite as: DeUnemployment, “Pay disclosure: agencies vs direct employers — 2026-11-06”, https://deunemployment.com/data/agency-pay-transparency (2026-11-06).
Where this connects. Outside work that defines or studies the measure on this page:
- California's pay transparency law and what it requires of postings — CNBC
- The impact of pay transparency in job postings on the labour market — Arnold et al., Arizona State University
Need a different cut? Every figure on this page comes from one index, so we can extract almost any slice on request — a city, a role, an industry, a time window, or a comparison between platforms. Tell us what you need at [email protected] and we will pull it, publish it with its method, and hand you the numbers. All we ask in return is a citation.
More data
- Pay transparency
- Hiring market structure
- Blog: everyone says they want pay transparency
- All datasets & measures
- State of Jobs — monthly report
- Data health — what our corpus can vouch for
- Request a custom cut
“Still listed” is a listing-age measure from the source publish date, not a verification that a role is open; link liveness is measured separately. The percentages are the October 2026 edition (full pass, measured 2026-10-06); the index counts are rebuilt by every nightly update, most recently 2026-11-06. Page generated 2026-11-06.