How we choose
Who we list
Every business with a local presence in the area that recruits or supplies staff for employers: permanent recruitment, temp and contract staffing, labour hire and executive search. A local presence is an office in the area, an ABN registered in the area, or the firm’s own site saying it is based there. National firms are listed only where they have a local presence.
Who we do not list
Government-funded employment services (Workforce Australia and Disability Employment Services providers), job boards, group training organisations, HR consultancies that do not recruit, and firms whose sites only say they service an area.
The areas
Newcastle: the City of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Cessnock (postcodes 2280 to 2327).
Central Coast: the Central Coast Council area, including Gosford, Erina, Terrigal, Tuggerah, Wyong, The Entrance and Woy Woy (postcodes 2250 to 2263).
What we never use
Google ratings, reviews or Google Maps data. Paid placement. Negative claims about any firm.
Updates and corrections
We change a guide’s “Updated” date only when its facts change. To fix a fact, use the corrections form. We reply within 5 business days.
The facts we check
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| Name, website, office address, services | The firm's own site. We keep the exact sentence each fact comes from. |
| Fields with proof | The firm's own site: a page about the field, its current job ads (counted, with the date), or its consultants' job titles. |
| Local presence | An office address or the firm's own words: the firm's own site. A registered postcode: ABN Lookup. |
| ABN, active or not, active since, entity type, GST | ABN Lookup (Australian Business Register) |
| RCSA member | RCSA public member directory |
| Register facts | The NDIS Commission provider register; the NSW Contingent Workforce Scheme reports |
If we cannot find a fact, the guide says “Not found”. We never guess.
“Best for” picks
The needs: mining, engineering and trades; healthcare and aged care; office, admin and accounting; IT and technology; construction; temp staff and labour hire at short notice; executive and senior roles.
A firm is picked for a need only when all three are true:
- The firm’s own site shows the field in at least one of these ways: a page about the field; at least 3 current job ads in the field that make up at least 1 in 5 of its open ads; or consultants whose job titles name the field. One sentence naming the field is not enough on its own.
- It has a local presence in the area: an office, its ABN registered there, or its own site saying it is based there.
- Its ABN is active.
Where an official register or government scheme lists the firm, we show that too. Every proof links to its source and shows the date we checked it.
Firms that meet all three are shown specialists first: the fewer fields a firm has proof for, the higher it ranks. Ties go to the oldest ABN, then A–Z. Up to 3 firms per need, and each firm is picked for at most 2 needs; the need with the fewest qualifying firms chooses first. If fewer qualify, fewer are shown. Every other firm stays in the full table.
Who checks the guides
Our editor, Peter Davidson, reviews each guide before it is published.
Money
No firm pays to be listed or picked. During this test, no firm pays us anything.