ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In light of the recent announcement by Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity that it has completed a majority investment in professional employer organization CoAdvantage, Inc., the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) is highlighting its September 2015 study on the PEO industry's economic footprint. The study, by noted economists Laurie Bassi and Dan McMurrer, showed that PEOs generate between $136 and $152 billion in gross revenues, and provide HR, benefits, and compliance assistance services to between 156,000 and 180,000 small to mid-sized businesses, employing between 2.7 and 3.4 million workers.

Key Findings of An Economic Analysis: The PEO Industry Footprint:

• The current size of the PEO industry is between $136 and $156 billion, as measured in gross revenues.
  
• PEOs provide HR, benefits, and compliance assistance services to between 156,000 and 180,000 small to mid-sized businesses, employing between 2.7 and 3.4 million workers.
• There are between 780 and 980 PEOs currently operating in the United States. They employ between 21,000 and 27,000 people internally.
  
• The PEO industry has grown significantly. In each of the last 30 years, the industry has added, on average, roughly 100,000 worksite employees and 6,000 net new clients. For perspective, that means that every five years, the PEO industry has added the employment equivalent of the entire utilities industry in the United States.
  
• The estimated 2.7 to 3.4 million employees who benefit from PEO services is a number larger than the size of the entire agriculture/forestry industry in the United States (and close to the size of the federal government, the education sector, or the information sector), based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The economic analysis examined a variety of data sources, including NAPEO membership data; BLS data; NAPEO's 2014 Financial Ratio and Operating Statistics Survey; Hoovers/Dun & Bradstreet data on all companies classified as PEOs by Hoovers; and detailed administrative data from five selected states.

A copy of the full study is available here.

About NAPEO
The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) is The Voice of the PEO IndustryTM and represents about 85 percent of the industry's estimated $136-$152 billion in gross revenues. NAPEO has 300 PEO members, ranging from start-ups to large publicly held companies with years of success in the industry, as well as some 200 service provider members. PEOs provide payroll, benefits, and other HR services to small and mid-sized businesses. For more information about NAPEO, please visit www.napeo.org.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/recent-study-shows-significant-footprint-and-strong-growth-for-peo-industry-300156909.html

SOURCE National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO)