In 2024, one in two companies are turning to outsourcing to save costs and attract new capabilities. This way, they free up resources to focus on their core business goals. At the same time, outsourcing is becoming a large part of the economy’s income for some countries.
In this article, we’ll review outsourcing statistics driving the market in 2024. Keep reading to find out the key industry and regional trends.
Before you get to the complete list, here are the most notable outsourcing trends:
Let’s start our overview with some brief facts about the outsourcing industry.
The global outsourcing market will generate $769.7 billion in 2024
The industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.54% during the forecast period. The outsourcing market will reach a total market size of $904.9 billion in 2027.
Source: Research and Markets
Global outsourcing stood at $40.7 billion in annual contract value (ACV)
In 2023, IT services experienced its best year ever, making up 75% of all global contracts. It reached $30.4 billion (13% increase year-on-year). However, business services outsourcing decreased by 14%, generating $10.3 billion in ACV.
Source: ISG Index
57% of all G2000 companies have at least one outsourcing contract
The highest level of outsourcing adoption (92%) occurs in the top 50 companies in the Forbes ranking. The lowest (36%) is in the 1501-2000 positions. So, service providers still have the opportunity to enter this market.
Of the G2000 outsourcing customers, 92% delegate IT support services, and 59% – business processes.
Source: ISG
57% of outsourcing customers use it due to the need to cut costs
Besides, the most popular reasons for outsourcing are:
Source: Deloitte outsourcing report
60% of customers will assess their outsourcing strategies in the next 12 months
Outsourcing providers believe 59% of enterprises will move from concentrated service locations to a diversified presence soon.
Now, 55% of the market goes to outsourcing vendors for managed services and staff augmentation. Another 25% are strategic suppliers for end-to-end tech-enabled outsourcing. Forecasts say that transformational partners with multi-provider collaboration will represent the rest.
Source: KPMG
The outsourcing market comprises two sub-sectors: IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO).
ITO includes cybersecurity, software development, data and analytics services, etc. BPO covers legal, HR, financial, customer, and marketing support. Let’s have a further look.
The global IT outsourcing market will hit $512.5 billion by the end of 2024. Despite a slight decline in 2020, the industry will grow steadily at a CAGR of 10.99%, reaching $777.7 billion by 2028.
BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), healthcare, and IT & telecom generate the most significant revenues for IT outsourcing.
Thus, the BFSI industry outsources the most and spends 30.29% of the sector’s total value, i.e., about $155 billion in 2024. Healthcare IT services spending, in turn, amounts to $120 billion.
Overall, 76% of businesses outsource IT functions. They spent an average of 8.1% of their budget on IT outsourcing services in 2023. It is 1.7% more than in 2019.
Companies most often use external service providers in the following IT areas:
Gartner predicts that by 2025, a lack of talent will be the cause of over half of significant cyber incidents.
That’s why 93% of organizations plan to outsource parts of their workflows to security vendors over the next 2 years.
Security services account for 42% of companies’ total risk management costs today. They spend on consulting, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support. In total, these costs will reach $90 billion in 2024, up 11% from 2023.
Source: Gartner, PRNewswire
64% of organizations outsourced at least part of their app development in 2023, up 8% from 2019. Of them, 46% said they had increased the work delegated to outsourcing companies, and only 8% had decreased it.
59% of small and medium-sized businesses outsource app development, delegating about 45% of their IT work. In turn, 68% of large companies do so, but with only 39% of their tasks in the ratio.
The most frequent clients of outsourced app development companies are the following industries:
About 69% of businesses have the same or lower costs for outsourcing app development than when handling it in-house.
On the other hand, only 54% of outsourcing customers say that the quality of the development services they receive is better or on par with their internal efforts.
Source: Computer Economics
The business process outsourcing industry will reach $370 billion in 2024. Forecasts say that the market will grow by 9.4% per year until 2030, hitting $525.2 billion.
2018
0.27
-
2019
0.28
↑ 3.7%
2020
0.27
↓ 3.6%
2021
0.3
↑ 11.1%
2022
0.33
↑ 10%
2023
0.35
↑ 6%
2024*
0.37
↑ 5.7%
2025*
0.39
↑ 5.1%
2026*
0.41
↑ 5.1%
2027*
0.42
↑ 2.4%
2028*
0.44
↑ 4.7%
* Projected values
Within this industry, customer service outsourcing generates 32.27% of revenue. Other large segments are finance and accounting (27.27%) and HR (21.82%).
52% of executives outsource business functions. The most outsourced services are:
Source: Statista, Grand View Research, Deloitte
The global legal process outsourcing (LPO) market reached $17.45 billion in 2023. It will grow at a CAGR of 31.4% between 2023 and 2030. The industry’s projected revenue will total $117.89 billion in 2030.
Asia Pacific led the LPO market in 2023 with over 71% global revenue share. Among them, India and the Philippines are the most popular destinations for legal services.
The e-discovery segment accounts for 22% of LPO income. Other popular services include litigation and patent support, contract drafting, management, and compliance help.
Source: Grand View Research
The global financial and accounting business process outsourcing (F&A BPO) market stood at $60.31 billion in 2023. By 2030, it will grow at a CAGR of 9.1% to reach $110.74 billion.
69.2% of the F&A BPO market belongs to large enterprises. Among them are Accenture, Infosys Limited, Capgemini, and IBM Corporation.
However, despite the growth, forecasts indicate that 60% of finance and accounting outsourcing contracts won’t be renewed by 2025. The reason is outdated pricing models that don’t drive digitization and process improvement.
Source: Grand View Research, Gartner
Asia Pacific countries are the leaders in outsourcing attractiveness based on the Global Services Location Index. India, China, and Malaysia are at the top in 2023.
The GSLI ranks countries by digital resonance, business climate, skills availability, and financial attractiveness. Here are the top 5 rankings for each factor:
The United States ranks 8th with the lowest financial attractiveness. But it’s 1st for the highest human skills availability and 2nd for the best business environment and digital resonance after Singapore.
Let’s check out the outsourcing statistics by country in detail.
The United States holds the largest share in global IT outsourcing by revenue. The local market is forecast to reach $185.5 billion in 2024. It will grow at a CAGR of 10.71% to hit $278.7 billion by 2028.
The same goes for business process outsourcing – the US is in the lead, with a projected income of $134 billion in 2024. However, the growth here is forecast to be low – only 3.23% per year. As of March 2024, the US business outsourcing sector employs 574k people.
66% of US companies outsource at least one business process. It is over 300k American jobs. One of the main reasons for outsourcing outside the United States is to save money on wages and health insurance. For instance, the benefits account for 29.6% of employers’ potentially saved costs.
For example, when it comes to choosing a white label SEO outsourcing provider, 74% of business owners consider an SEO provider’s reputation “very” or “extremely” important. Specifically, 83% of respondents stated that SEO providers should be able to help them “access new customers”.
Source: IBISWorld, Bureau of Labor Statistics
APAC regions make up 23% of the total global IT outsourcing revenue. Forecasts show it will exceed $120 billion by the end of 2024 and grow by 11.17% annually. The most prominent market players here are India, China, and the Philippines. Let’s take a closer look.
Being one of the largest outsourcing destinations, the Indian IT outsourcing market is forecast to reach $10.51 billion by the end of 2024. With a CAGR of 17.58%, it will double to $20.09 billion by 2028.
The US supplies 62% of the revenue for Indian outsourcing. The UK also contributes 17%, Europe 11% and Asia 8%.
In the first quarter of 2023, China signed outsourcing contracts worth 18.2% more than a year earlier. In particular, IT outsourcing deals were about $12.6 billion. Business process outsourcing (BPO) was worth about $6 billion, and knowledge management outsourcing (KPO) reached $12.5 billion.
The fastest growth was in the following sectors:
As of the end of March 2023, the sector had created 15.15 million jobs, with 64.7% of the workforce comprised of university graduates. In the first quarter alone, the industry added 177,000 new employees.
Source: Ministry of Commerce People’s Republic of China
IT services account for 17% and business services for 84%. The market expects to employ 1.5 million people in the coming years.
70% of revenue comes from North America, 15% from Europe and 15% from APAC. The most popular services are banking & finance (about 25%), media & telecom (14-18%), and retail (14-18%).
Source: IBPAP
Between 2018 and 2022, the European IT outsourcing market grew from €13.8 billion to about €21.8 billion in contracts per year (12% CAGR).
77% of EU companies that outsource IT do so within the European Union. They also actively delegate to other European countries (17%), India (17%), the UK (14%), or the US and Canada (11%).
The UK generates the largest revenue in the European region. By the end of 2024, it will amount to $35.51 billion. Here is a detailed list of the top countries by revenue in IT outsourcing:
UK
$35.51bn
9.41%
$50.89bn
Germany
$27.39bn
10.53%
$40.88bn
France
$23.49bn
10.64%
$35.2bn
Spain
$9.64bn
11.09%
$14.68bn
Netherlands
$9.58bn
10.11%
$14.08bn
Italy
$8.86bn
9.76%
$12.86bn
Switzerland
$6.32bn
9.81%
$9.19bn
Sweden
$5.75bn
10.91%
$8.7bn
Denmark
$4.63bn
10.49%
$6.9bn
Finland
$3.62bn
10.41%
$5.38bn
Belgium
$3.45bn
10.37%
$5.12bn
Poland
$3.05bn
12.12%
$4.82bn
Norway
$2.96bn
11.22%
$4.53bn
Austria
$2.81bn
10.64%
$4.21bn
Czechia
$2.01bn
11.62%
$3.12bn
Ireland
$1.49bn
11.83%
$2.33bn
Ukraine
$1.35bn
14.5%
$2.32bn
Notably, Ukraine and Poland will see the largest growth in the IT outsourcing industry over the next 4 years. Eastern Europe will become a significant hub for hiring IT specialists, which will determine the future of outsourcing.
During 2018-2022, the EU outsourcing market created 17,481 workplaces. In contrast, the region lost 92,027 jobs (0.23% of all) due to delegating abroad.
Source: Eurostat
LATAM’s IT outsourcing market will reach $15.92 billion in 2024. Forecasts suggest that it will reach $25.28 billion by 2028.
Business process outsourcing is also stable at $14.76 billion in 2024. However, the growth rate here is lower: by 2028, the market will hit $18.02 billion.
Here are the top LATAM countries leading by revenue in IT outsourcing:
Brazil
$6.13bn
12.5%
$9.82bn
Mexico
$5.06bn
11.78%
$7.9bn
Colombia
$683.2m
13.15%
$1.12bn
Chile
$657.2m
12.16%
$1.04bn
Peru
$532m
12.97%
$866.5m
Cuba
$348.4m
12.69%
$561.8m
Brazil and Mexico lead the LATAM outsourcing market, with 70% of the region’s revenue.
Source: Statista
US small businesses spent an average of $198,550 on outsourcing services in 2022. And 83% of them will maintain or increase their spending.
52% of small businesses use professional outsourcing agencies regularly. Most often, they look for external providers with expertise in:
Small businesses turn to outsourcing to reduce expenses, fill skill gaps, and scale up their business.
Source: Clutch
That wraps up our outsourcing statistics report for 2024. As you can see, the industry is still growing and attractive to companies of all sizes and industries. Today, 76% of enterprises outsource IT operations and 52% – business processes. And these numbers will only increase. Challenges like declining skilled labor, security threats, and the need to reduce costs will continue to drive the sector.
In fact, the outsourcing industry has become a contributor to many global economies. Thus, firms get the services faster and cheaper, and developing countries boost their growth.
If you decide to start outsourcing or look for remote experts for your project, don’t hesitate to contact us. Here at DOIT Software, we know how to hire IT professionals, so we can provide recommendations tailored to your needs.
The short answer is yes. The outsourcing industry is fast growing by an average of 11% annually. Today, 76% of companies outsource IT functions, and 52% – business processes. New challenges in cybersecurity, skills needs, and cost-cutting drive even more firms to delegate at least part of their workflows.
About 76% of companies outsource at least part of their IT. Most often, it’s cybersecurity and software development services.
The IT outsourcing market will reach an estimated $512.5 billion by the end of 2024. It accounts for 75% of the annual contract value of global outsourcing.
Companies often outsource manufacturing to Asian countries. For example, Dell to Lebanon, India, Poland, Malaysia, and China.
Citi and Oracle delegate IT operations to Eastern Europe, India, and the Philippines. American Express and AT&T also outsource customer service to the Philippines.
