Outsourcing in the Philippines enjoyed tremendous growth in 2021 as foreign companies continued hiring Filipino staff in lieu of local hires. The BPO industry in the Philippines grew 10.6% due to the pent-up demand from global clients, higher confidence in work-from-home setups, and growth in outsourcing in segments like e-commerce, financial technology, healthcare, virtual assistants, telesales & customer support. 

Full time outsourcing agents also rose by 9.1% to 1.44 million in 2021. CEO of dominant outsourcing company BruntWork commented that “this only just the beginning of the largest structural change to globalisation and employment since the industrial revolution” as companies from around the world start to outsource in ever larger numbers in an attempt to lower costs while battling inflation.  

A tale of two countries

This stands in stark contrast to the more than 17,000 tech workers in the US who have been laid off in mass job cuts since the beginning of June 2022. According to a tally by Crunchbase News, tech companies as big as Netflix and Tesla are trimming their headcounts due to the pandemic or overhiring during periods of rapid growth. 

Companies look beyond Manila for outsourced labor

Manila has traditionally been the biggest labor pool in the Philippines however the workforce in other regional centers keeps on growing as job vacancies in the Davao Region are dominated by the outsourcing sector. 

The Philippines climbed up 40 spots to 33rd place in Nikkei Asia’s COVID Recovery Index, its best performance yet. This comes as the country managed to ease its restrictions while keeping the COVID-19 infections managed. Nikkei Asia also remarked on the government’s move to reopen its borders to fully-vaccinated travelers. 

Outsourced Agents in the Philippines work multiple jobs

Amid the great resignation, Jobstreet Philippines said that more companies are becoming tolerant of employees with multiple jobs. Jobstreet Country Manager Philip Gioca believes that employers will not likely stop these employees from doing multiple jobs unless there are some ethical issues and work practices that are not being met. Over 1.5 million freelancers are now registered in the nation and this number will continue to surge over the coming years.

The “Great Resignation” will continue over the next 12 months, said BruntWork’s CEO Wisnton Ong. “Almost 1 in 5 of our new clients complain about local wage inflation as they try out outsourcing for the first time”, Ong continued.  

BPO firms continue to capitalize on the trend to outsource local roles

Workers are desperately trying to find bigger paychecks as inflation spirals out of control. The highest pressure for salary increase falls on the tech sector with 44% of workers saying that they would quit if they will not be given a raise. This has been just another catalyst for BruntWork’s hypergrowth in FY22, as it looks to out-manoeuvre much bigger rivals like TaskUs, Acquire, Microsourcing and Wipro and help companies from the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand establish a presence in the Philippines to reduce their labor costs by up to 70%.