MANILA – The Philippines ranks No. 1 in labor force among Asia Pacific outsourcing destinations, according to global real estate consultancy Knight Frank’s recent report on the BPO industry entitled Horizon: Harnessing the Potential of Offshoring.
The report compares four offshoring hubs in Asia Pacific, namely: India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Knight Frank’s analysis highlights five key drivers of location choice: growth dynamics, skills, labor force, business costs, and commercial real estate value.
Figure 1. The Philippines shows its well-rounded appeal vs. Asia Pacific counterparts, across five key drivers of location choice as determined by Knight Frank.
The Philippines emerges as the most well-rounded option across the Asia Pacific, tying with India in the top position in terms of overall scores in the index.
Santos Knight Frank explains that among the four major outsourcing destinations in Asia Pacific, the Philippines – which has approximately 78.7 million people in the working population — has the youngest median age of just 25 years. India records a median age of 32.4; Malaysia, 30.8; and Vietnam, 31.6.
The Philippines’ well-rounded appeal is poised to attract increasing global demand for specialized outsourcing services such as finance, human resources, legal processes, and analytics from the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
Morgan McGilvray, Senior Director of Occupier Strategy & Solutions at Santos Knight Frank explains: “BPO has taken off over the last 20 years, and the Philippines has grown right along with it. What started as a novel experiment for many firms – the hiring of a few support staff in Manila – has become an integral part of their business operations that they couldn’t live without.”
Holistic destination for outsourcing
The Philippine BPO industry grew by double digits in 2021 and 2022, reaching US $29.5 billion and US $32.5 billion in revenues respectively. A significant part of this growth includes business expansions outside Metro Manila and into other growth centers such as Cebu, Davao, Clark, Iloilo, and Bacolod City.