A Gulf facilities-management group is setting up a shared-service centre in New Cairo for 60 finance and customer-service staff, and also wants 80 Egyptian technicians for its contracts in Saudi Arabia. The group HR manager, working from Riyadh, gives both jobs to one Cairo agency because it quoted the lowest fee.
The results split down the middle. The agency fills the technician roles quickly, but it specialises in Gulf placements and knows few of the accountants and bilingual service agents the Cairo centre needs, so those roles sit open for two months. A sub-agent posting the technician jobs on Facebook collects “file fees” from applicants, and the complaints appear in the same groups. And with no Egyptian entity yet registered, nobody can put the first finance hires on payroll or register them for social insurance. Egypt had the people. The group needed three different kinds of firm.
Egypt is two recruitment markets in one country. The first is domestic: multinationals, banks, start-ups and outsourcing centres in Greater Cairo and Alexandria competing for professionals, graduates and multilingual service staff. The second is outbound: a long-established industry of licensed agencies that recruit Egyptian doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians and teachers for employers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and beyond. Many firms do both; few do both equally well.
This guide, part of the Finding the Right Person hub, explains how the new labour law regulates recruiters, what employers pay and which firms to approach for which need. It profiles 12 recruitment, executive search and HR consulting firms, with a table and a question set. For job boards, foreign-worker rules and the hiring process, start with our Egypt recruiting playbook.
In short
Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 and Ministerial Decree No. 272 of 2025 require private recruitment agencies, including online ones, to hold an annual Ministry of Labour licence.
Licensed agencies need EGP 500,000 in capital, majority Egyptian ownership and a security deposit of at least EGP 1 million.
A worker can be charged at most 1% of first-year salary, and only after placement.
Employers usually pay 10–20% of annual gross for professional roles; outsourcing and EOR firms bill a monthly fee per employee.
How the recruitment and HR-services market works in Egypt
Recruitment was overhauled by Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, in force since 1 September 2025, and its implementing decrees. Ministerial Decree No. 272 of 2025 requires private recruitment agencies, whether companies or sole proprietorships, to be licensed by the Ministry of Labour to recruit at home and abroad, and online platforms placing Egyptians need a licence too. According to a summary by an Egyptian law firm, a recruitment company needs capital of at least EGP 500,000, Egyptian founders holding at least 51% and a security deposit or bank guarantee of at least EGP 1 million. Licences last a year and cost EGP 5,000 to issue or renew, and the ministry can suspend or revoke them for unlawful fees, recruiting without a written employment agreement or fake vacancies.
Most professional recruiters in Cairo combine search with outsourcing, payroll and consulting, because many employers, especially foreign ones, want one firm to hire, employ and administer. Executive search is concentrated among a few international networks and local boutiques. Plan for notice periods: indefinite contracts carry two months’ notice, or three after ten years’ service, and probation is capped at three months, so senior hires often start two months after accepting.
Egypt recruitment market at a glance
Agency licence required?Yes: Ministry of Labour, renewed yearly
Max fee charged to a worker1% of first-year salary, after placement
Typical contingency feeRoughly 10–20% of annual gross
Guarantee period normOften 1–3 months
Retained search normAbout a quarter to a third of first-year package
Statutory notice2 months (3 after 10 years’ service)
Main business hubsGreater Cairo, Alexandria, Suez Canal zone
Data-protection lawLaw No. 151 of 2020
Recruiting Egyptians for the Gulf: licensed agencies only
For Gulf employers, Egypt is one of the region’s deepest talent pools in healthcare, engineering, education and skilled trades, and placement abroad is a regulated activity in its own right. Licensed agencies usually display their ministry licence number, run trade tests and interviews, arrange medicals and handle visa stamping and pre-departure steps. The government says it will be firm with fraudulent recruiters: in September 2025 the labour minister told an ILO fair-recruitment roundtable that the new law aligns agency regulation with international standards to protect Egyptians abroad. The ministry also restricts some outbound categories; in April 2026 it barred agencies from processing Egyptian women for certain jobs abroad, including domestic work and café service.
Hard-wire the fee rule into every contract. The decree caps what an agency may collect from a worker at 1% of the first year’s salary as administrative expenses, only once the worker is placed, and bans deducting recruitment costs from pay. On the Gulf side, Saudi Arabia’s Article 40 and the UAE’s Decree-Law 33 of 2021 already put recruitment costs on the employer. The cheapest agency is often cheap because candidates are paying the difference.
Watch outUnlicensed recruiters advertise heavily in Facebook and WhatsApp groups, sometimes using a real employer’s name. Name your Egyptian agency partner on your careers page, tell candidates you never charge fees, and get a copy of the agency’s licence before it posts anything in your name.
Who pays the recruiter, and how much
At the time of writing (November 2026), Cairo agencies generally charge employers 10% to 20% of annual gross salary for professional roles, or one to three months’ salary for junior and volume hiring. Guarantees are shorter than in the Gulf, often one to three months. Retained search is billed in stages for roughly a quarter to a third of first-year package, and outsourcing and employer-of-record providers charge a monthly fee per employee on top of salary and social insurance. Our guide to agency fees by country compares markets.
Indicative fee ranges in Egypt by type of firm, and the legal cap on what a worker may be charged. Kurums estimate from market practice; confirm terms with each firm.
Two Egyptian specifics move the numbers. Agree whether the fee is based on basic monthly pay times twelve or on total cash, including the extra monthly salaries and profit shares many employers pay. And fix the currency: if salaries are quoted in US dollars or linked to the exchange rate, say whether the fee follows the same rule.
Consultant’s noteA foreign company hiring its first Egyptian staff will often move fastest through an employer-of-record or outsourcing firm while its entity is registered. Check social-insurance registration from day one and the cost of transferring staff to your own entity later; see hiring without an entity and our EOR comparison. Remember the foreign-worker rules too: under Ministerial Resolution 279 of 2025, foreign staff are capped at 10% of the Egyptian workforce, with two Egyptian assistants per foreign expert.
Recruitment, selection and placement firms
These firms recruit for employers in Egypt, the Gulf or both; three of the four run overseas placement as a core service. Listings are editorial and independent; no firm paid to be included, and inclusion is not a recommendation. Check licences, terms and references directly with each firm.
Alfa-HRRecruitment and outsourcing company
Gulf placementsOutsourcing
WhereHeliopolis, Cairo
Best forDirect hire, contract staff, headhunting and overseas recruitment campaigns, including GCC deployment
Pricing modelPlacement fees; outsourcing by contract
In business since 2001 according to its site, it handles visa stamping and onboarding for candidates deployed to GCC employers.
Senior hiring in Egypt is often confidential and competitive, with Gulf employers and remote foreign companies bidding for the same leaders. Retained search, with staged fees and an off-limits list, is the norm for country managers and the C-suite.
Boyden (Egypt)Executive search and leadership consulting
RetainedFamily business
WhereNew Cairo (City Center, 2nd District)
Best forConsumer and retail, industrial, professional services and technology; family-owned and multinational clients
Pricing modelRetained search
Egyptian case studies on its site include financial-services, consumer-products and industrial-manufacturing searches.
HR consultancies, outsourcing and employer of record
These firms build the structure around your hires: payroll and social-insurance administration, employer-of-record services, assessment centres and pay and grading design. Set salary ranges before you brief a recruiter; our guide to setting the pay band shows how.
Top BusinessRecruitment, assessment and HR outsourcing
AssessmentPayroll
WhereHeliopolis, Cairo; UAE office
Best forLocal and overseas recruitment, assessment centres, HR outsourcing, payroll, social-insurance and labour advice, training
Pricing modelPlacement, project and monthly fees
Founded in 1993 per its site; its assessors are certified by a UK-based assessment-centre consultancy, and it runs its own training centre.
Editorial selection of 12 firms operating in Egypt, November 2026. No firm paid to be included.
Before you engage a recruitment or HR firm in Egypt
Put these questions to each firm on your shortlist, and keep the answers on file with the contract.
● Before you engage a recruitment or HR firm in Egypt · 11 questions
1What is your Ministry of Labour licence number, and does it cover placement abroad, online recruitment or both?Decree 272 of 2025 licenses each activity; an unlicensed recruiter becomes your reputational problem.
2Will you confirm that candidates pay nothing beyond the legal cap, and nothing before placement?The cap is 1% of first-year salary in administrative fees; deductions from pay are banned.
3Is your fee based on basic monthly pay times twelve, or on total cash including extra salaries and bonuses?Extra monthly salaries and profit shares can lift the base considerably.
4In which currency is the fee invoiced, and what happens if salaries are dollar-linked?Exchange-rate moves can change the real cost of a fee between offer and invoice.
5What is the replacement guarantee, and does it survive a two- or three-month notice period?Long statutory notice can eat most of a short guarantee before the hire starts.
6Which roles like ours have you filled in the past year, in Cairo and in the Gulf?Gulf-placement specialists and Cairo white-collar recruiters rarely excel at both.
7Who will screen and interview, and in which languages?Multilingual service roles need testing in each language, not a self-assessment.
8For outsourced or EOR staff, do you register them for social insurance from day one, and can we transfer them later?Check registration proof and the transfer or conversion terms before you sign.
9Who prepares the Arabic employment contract, and does it match the offer letter?The new law requires Arabic contracts; mismatches with an English offer cause disputes.
10For Gulf roles, who arranges trade tests, medicals, attestation and visa processing, and who pays?Gulf labour laws put these costs on the employer, not the candidate.
11How do you store candidate data, and how do you comply with Law No. 151 of 2020?Egypt’s data-protection law applies to CV databases and transfers abroad.
Last Updated: November 2026 · Reviewed by the Kurums HR editorial team. This guide is general information, not legal advice; employment and advertising rules change, so confirm requirements with local counsel before you post.
