15 Top Outsourcing Statistics And Trends (2024)

Curious about the latest outsourcing statistics?

Outsourcing offers an easy, less risky and less expensive way for companies to accomplish a lot of tasks they can’t handle internally.

It can even help companies expand their operations without hiring additional employees.

In this post, we list the top outsourcing statistics from the global outsourcing market. We’ve arranged them into a few different categories, including general statistics for outsourcing, marketing-specific statistics and IT-specific statistics.

General outsourcing statistics

1. The global outsourcing market size is valued at more than $261.9 billion

According to an analysis of the outsourcing market conducted by Grand View Research, global business process outsourcing had a market value of $261.9 billion in 2022.

It’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4% between 2023 and 2030.

The global market for outsourcing will be valued at $525.2 billion by 2030.

Source: Grand View Research

2. North America has a market share of 35% in global business process outsourcing

North America accounted for 35% of the global business process outsourcing market share in 2022.

In North America, the outsourcing market value was $85.2 billion in 2020 and $89.9 billion in 2021. North America’s CAGR between 2023 and 2030 will be 8.9%.

The fastest growing market will be Asia-Pacific (APAC).

Source: Grand View Research

3. Companies outsource 51.38% of business tasks in all departments

According to Deloitte’s outsourcing survey, companies outsource 51.38% of business processes in all departments.

Those departments are legal, tax, human resources (HR), finance, manufacturing and supply chain procurement, procurement, engineering, and sales.

Outsourcing mostly occurs in the legal, tax and HR departments:

• Legal
  • In house – Businesses handle 36% of all legal tasks internally
  • Outsource – Businesses outsource 64% of all legal tasks
• Tax
  • In house – 39%
  • Outsource – 61%
• HR
  • In house – 43%
  • Outsource – 57%
• Finance
  • In house – 49%
  • Outsource – 51%
• Manufacturing and Supply Chain Procurement
  • In house – 50%
  • Outsource – 50%
• Procurement
  • In house – 52%
  • Outsource – 48%
• Engineering/Product Development
  • In house – 55%
  • Outsource – 45%
• Sales
  • In house – 65%
  • Outsource – 35%

Source: Deloitte

4. 57% of organizations cite cost as a primary reason for outsourcing

Deloitte asked executives about the reasons they outsource certain tasks within their organizations.

According to the company’s survey, 57% of organizations voted for “overall need to cut costs” as a primary reason for utilizing traditional outsourcing.

Here are other reasons executives voted for:

• Overall need to cut costs – 57% of organizations cite this as a primary reason for using traditional outsourcing
• Business strategy and operating model shifts – 51%
• To gain access to new capabilities – 49%
• Reallocating CAPEX spend to OPEX – 45%
• Internal leadership changes – 33%
• Increased competition – 31%
• Changing talent landscape – 29%
• Increasing employee expectations – 24%
• Changing regulatory requirements – 22%
• Increasing and more complex cybersecurity threats – 18%
• Lack of employee or training skills – 16%
• Increasing pace of technology and digital transformation – 14%
• M&A activity – 10%

Source: Deloitte

5. 87% of organizations consider external workers as part of their workforce

According to Deloitte’s report on outsourcing, 87%, or the vast majority, of organizations consider outsourced jobs, such as freelancers, as part of the organization’s workforce.

This means only 13% of organizations see “workforce” as only the organization’s part and full-time employees.

Source: Deloitte

6. 54% of executives value transparency in service providers

According to Deloitte’s global outsourcing survey, the majority of executives, or 54%, value transparency the most in service providers.

Here are other qualitative aspects executives value in service providers:

• Transparency – 54% of executives value this aspect in service providers
• Trustworthiness – 41%
• Understanding of our business – 40%
• Proven results/outcomes – 36%
• Clear and frequent communication – 33%
• Skilled resources/effective capabilities – 33%
• Clear defined cybersecurity standards – 31%
• Innovation contribution – 21%
• Strategic partnership – 10%

Source: Deloitte

Marketing outsourcing statistics

7. 49% of companies outsource content writing

Semrush conducted a study on content operations and outsourcing that included cooperation with high-ranking officials from companies like Userpilot, LiveChat, Piktochart, GetResponse and more.

They discovered that 51% of companies do not outsource for content writing tasks.

However, it’s important to note that in a later question, Semrush asks these companies why they don’t outsource content writing, and 14% say they don’t produce content at all.

This means 37% of companies do not outsource content writing.

Of the 49% who do, 37% use a hybrid method, meaning they use both in-house writers and outsourced service providers.

12% of companies surveyed outsource all content writing tasks.

12% of companies, which was the majority, who do outsource content writing are in the software as a service (SaaS) industry.

Of the 51% of companies who do not outsource content writing, 9% were from the technology and software engineering industry.

Here’s Semrush’s breakdown of other industries who handle content writing tasks in house:

• Technology and software engineering – Companies in this industry represent 9% of the 51% of companies who do not outsource content writing
• Marketing and sales – 8%
• Retail – 8%
• Healthcare – 7%
• Education – 7%
• Manufacturing and production – 6%
• SaaS – 5%
• Technology and hardware – 5%
• Travel – 4%
• Media and publishing – 4%
• Ecommerce – 4%
• Food – 4%
• Finance – 3%
• Real estate – 2%

Source: Semrush

8. 47% of companies who outsource content writing do so to reputable freelancers

Semrush asked companies who do outsource content writing who they outsource to.

47% outsource content writing to freelancers who have reputable brands and come with referrals.

27% outsource to digital marketing and content marketing agencies.

24% use content writing service providers while 17% hire external writers from freelance gig sites.

A noteworthy 12% use AI writing tools.

4% voted for “other,” giving write-in responses, many of which included “guest bloggers,” “expert writers in the field” and “PR agencies.”

Source: Semrush

9. 40% of companies who handle content writing in house have one employee in charge of marketing

Semrush’s survey also revealed that of the 51% of companies who handle content writing in house, 40%, which was the majority, have only a single employee who’s in charge of marketing for the company.

28% have between two and five employees on their marketing teams, 9% have between six and 10, and 10% have over 11.

The remaining 13% do not handle content writing in house.

What about companies who do outsource content writing?

The majority, or 37%, have between two and five people on their marketing teams. 15%, which was the next majority, have one.

14% have between 11 and 20 while another 14% have between six and 10.

11% have between 21 and 50, 5% have between 51 and 100, and 4% have more than 100.

This means companies who outsource content writing are able to hire more writers and are, therefore, able to produce more content and much more ambitious content marketing projects.

In fact, our next statistic proves that theory.

It’s worth pointing out that although 19% of the companies Semrush surveyed have over 1,000 employees in total, 45.5% are small businesses with 50 employees or less.

Source: Semrush

10. 52% of companies who outsource content writing do so to increase content production

Semrush asked companies who do outsource content writing why they outsource content writing.

The majority, or 52%, say they do so out of a need to increase content production.

37% say hiring in-house writers is expensive, another 37% say they don’t have enough in-house writers, and another 37% say their in-house content marketers had other tasks to complete.

29% say it’s hard to hire good in-house writers while 19% get more input from external writers.

3% voted for “other,” but Semrush didn’t include their responses.

Source: Semrush

11. 11% of companies who don’t outsource content writing say they don’t have good experiences with external writers

Semrush asked companies who only use in-house writers why they don’t outsource content writing.

24% of companies say their content marketing strategy is much more manageable when done internally.

23% say a writer better understands their product or service when they work with it and create content for it every day.

20% believe a writer is only capable of incorporating storytelling in their content if they’re familiar with their product or service in the way an employee of the company is.

11% don’t have good experiences with external writers.

And again, 14% of companies in this category reportedly don’t produce content at all.

10% chose “other” and were asked to specify their reasons for not outsourcing content writing, but Semrush didn’t include these responses in their report.

Source: Semrush

IT outsourcing statistics

12. The IT and telecommunications segment of outsourcing has a market share of 34%

According to Grand View Research’s analysis of the global business process outsourcing market, the IT and telecommunications segment of outsourcing has the largest market share at 34%.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment has the second largest market share at 30%. This segment will have the fastest CAGR between 2023 and 2030 at a rate of 10%.

Other noteworthy segments of outsourcing include manufacturing, healthcare and retail.

Source: Grand View Research

13. Companies outsource 75.86% of all tasks within IT departments

Deloitte’s survey revealed outsourcing is mostly used for information technology-related tasks in departments like cybersecurity, app and software development, IT infrastructure, next-gen tech, data and analytics, app support, and help desk technology.

Businesses outsource 75.86% of all tasks within these departments.

Outsourcing has high usage rates across each one of these departments:

• Cybersecurity
  • In house – Businesses handle 19% of all cybersecurity tasks internally
  • Outsource – Businesses outsource 81% of all cybersecurity tasks
• App/software development
  • In house – 21%
  • Outsource – 79%
• IT infrastructure service
  • In house – 23%
  • Outsource – 77%
• Next-gen tech
  • In house – 22%
  • Outsource – 78%
• Data and analytics
  • In house – 25%
  • Outsource – 75%
• App support
  • In house – 27%
  • Outsource – 73%
• Help desk and user computing
  • In house – 32%
  • Outsource – 68%

Source: Deloitte

14. Companies use service providers to handle 93% of new computing technologies

Deloitte asked business executives about new technologies their companies use as well as how much of each they’re handling externally and internally.

The survey reveals that companies use service providers to handle 93% of their implementation of these technologies.

Here’s the full breakdown from the survey:

• Cloud computing
  • Outsourcing to service providers – Companies outsource this technology 89% of the time
  • In house – Companies handle this technology in house 11% of the time
• AI and machine learning
  • Outsourcing to service providers – 94%
  • In house – 6%
• Data and analytics
  • Outsourcing to service providers – 96%
  • In house – 4%
• Robot process automation
  • Outsourcing to service providers – 91%
  • In house – 9%

Source: Deloitte

General employment statistics

15. 50% of executives name talent acquisition as a top internal challenge for their respective organizations

According to Deloitte’s outsourcing survey, 50% of executives find acquiring new talent to be a top internal challenge hindering their organization’s ability to meet key strategic goals.

This was voted as the biggest challenge out of all available options:

• Talent acquisition – 50% of executives say this is a top internal challenge
• Limited data analysis tools and technologies – 35%
• Limited collaboration between functions – 32%
• Employee retention – 30%
• Lack of adequate skills of employees – 28%
• Lack of adequate data – 26%
• Limited budget or visibility into cashflow – 22%

Source: Deloitte

Final thoughts

That concludes our roundup of the latest outsourcing statistics.

These statistics prove that the outsourcing industry is only expected to grow as time goes on.

We learned that North America makes up a pretty large portion of the global outsourcing market.

We also learned that the IT segment of outsourcing is fairly large with businesses outsourcing the majority of all IT-related tasks.

Sources

• Grand View Research
• Deloitte
• Semrush