Global outsourcing industry revenue by region 2010-2019

The Americas had the largest outsourcing market in 2019, with 62 billion U.S. dollars of revenue created by contracts valued at over 25 million U.S. dollars. This was a significant increase from two years ago and meant that for the second time North America was a larger market than Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Types of outsourcing

Outsourcing can involve contained segments of an organization, such as customer care or specific business functions which cut across all segments like Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources (HR). While the industry may limit which organizations can benefit from the former type of outsourcing, the common nature of processes like IT and HR mean all industries can potentially outsource, creating a massive global industry. For example, while healthcare is expected to increase IT outsourcing the least of all industries, IT outsourcing in this industry alone is still expected to be worth over 50 billion U.S. dollars globally.

Industry growth

Considering only contracts above 25 million U.S. dollars, total contract value in the outsourcing market has declined in recent years from a 2014 peak of 104.6 million U.S. dollars. This decline is reflected in the intention of companies to expand their use of offshoring. Analysts point to several reasons for this trend. First, the increasing ability to automate business processes has overtaken the cost advantages of outsourcing in some cases. Second, there is greater quality control over in-house operations and increased flexibility in the deployment of these type of operations. Finally, social and political pressure has led to some companies preferring to keep jobs close to home, rather than utilize cheaper labor overseas.