DCWP - Employment Agencies

What is an employment service?
An employment agency assists companies discover staff members and jobseekers find work for a charge.

Get complimentary aid.
The City uses complimentary aid for jobseekers. Visit nyc.gov/ workforce1 or call 311 and ask to discover a Workforce1 Career Center.

General Tips

Use a certified employment company. Employment companies must have a Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) license.
Visit nyc.gov/ dcwp or call 311 to look for a license and complaint history.

IMPORTANT - Employment agencies can not charge you for other services like training classes or accreditations.
- Are you in security training school? It needs to be registered with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
- Are you in bartending school? The New York City State Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision oversees bartending schools.

- An advance cost, deposit cost, registration charge, application fee, or interview cost. OR
- To refer you to another employment service or training school. OR
- For any additional products like training courses, photographs, or resume review.

- Name, address, and DCWP license number of the agency
- Type of work
- Price
- Fee payment schedule

- Age
- Race
- Creed
- Religion
- Color
- National origin
- Gender
- Disability
- Marital status
- Partnership status
- Caregiver status
- Sexual orientation
- Alienage or status

Beware of ...

Predatory Schools
There are numerous for-profit schools in NYC. Courses consist of whatever from a/c repair and cosmetology to medical technician training. Some schools misguide trainees. They may:

- Get you to get a great deal of financial assistance.
- "Guarantee" you a job after you graduate.
- Lie about the value of your degree, consisting of if your credits will move to another school.

Remember

- Financial assistance is typically a loan that you should repay. It is not a scholarship.
- Research a lot of schools.
- Don't sign up the day you visit a school.
- Get the school's tuition cancellation policy in composing.