The Robust Increase of Business Process Outsourcing in the Philippines
Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) plays a significant role in the Philippine economy, especially during the global pandemic. First quarter of 2020, the Philippine government declared a national lockdown to control the widespread of the virus. All business sectors were affected, and some were forced to shut down its operations. Hence, the economy was proportionally affected. With the aid of technology, the BPO industry continues its operation in response to the spike in demand for customer support especially in e-commerce, health, banking, telecommunication, and technology. Thus, the BPO industry was labeled as an essential industry. As an effect, employment opportunities relatively went up, and, according to a JobStreet report dated September 2021, Call Centers or IT-related Services accounted as a top industry providing opportunities to Filipino citizens.
After years of recovery from the pandemic crisis, Business Process Outsourcing continues to provide and assist the Philippine economy. Based on last year’s (2023) data from the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) there is an 8.7% surge in headcounts compared to the 2022 headcount. Amounted to 135,841 newly hired or added full-time headcounts. With a robust increase from the total headcount of full-time employees in the year 2021 of 1.44 million to 1.70 million in 2023.
One of the major factors that directly affect the integral growth of the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing industry is the support of the Philippine government. It is one of the reasons that made the Philippines a sweet spot for the outsourcing industry because of its unwavering investments in infrastructure and technology. Not to mention the policies and programs that the government enacted that the BPO benefited from. The government saw the great opportunity in 1990, that this industry would propel through the years to help the unemployment problem and to contribute to the economy in general. Which, it does and will continue to break barriers and expectations in terms of growth. As a result of the strong support from the government, it attracted foreign investors, thus it is safe to say that it created a snowball effect.