[1][2] A labour-hire agency employs workers who are then "on-hired" to perform labour for a second party organisation.
[3] Labour hire is distinct from the more general practices of temporary staffing, or outsourcing; as those concepts aren't predicated on an employee not having a legal contract of employment with their workplace.
Labour hire is often used by employers who want to engage staff temporarily, or have seasonal or other temporal factors reducing the need for direct administrative relationships with employees.
[5] The hiring of workers from Labour hire companies provides businesses with extreme flexibility in sourcing labour, and they can alter their workforce rapidly with minimal legal constraints, as the legal employment relationship resides with another employer (i.e. a "no-strings-attached" style).
[7] Major players in the international labour hire industry include Hays, Persol Holdings, Recruit, ManpowerGroup, Adecco, Randstad NV, and Serco.