Even though many people are out of work and the nation has lost an immense amount of jobs, the recruitment process outsourcing industry is still going strong.
"Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Moving Beyond the Pioneer Stage," a recent report from the Everest Research Institute, found that RPO is continuing to grow at a healthy rate, despite the fact that the national unemployment rate remains relatively high.
During January, the national unemployment rate decreased to 9.7 percent, after staying at 10 percent for two months. However, the country lost another 20,000 jobs that same month.
The report found that manufacturing and healthcare firms are the leading adopters of RPO in North America, while manufacturing, high-tech and telecommunication firms are the leading adopters of RPO globally.
The report further found:
- More than half of all RPO deals involve clients in North America, but adoption of RPO is on the rise in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
- About 75 percent of deals cover only one country, but U.S. and U.K.-based multi-national corporations are increasingly adopting RPO for their North American and Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.
- North American-based multi-national corporations are adopting RPO for both their European and Asia-Pacific operations.
- RPO is thought to have the most significant potential in China and India, but the RPO markets in those countries are still relatively undeveloped, as multi-national corporations with operations there are the primary adopters of RPO
- As opposed to human resources outsourcing, global sourcing and offshoring in RPO has remained limited to a small number of mature RPO relationships.
- The RPO vendor landscape remains geographically fragmented, with most vendors offering only limited geographic coverage.
In addition, the report notes that while there was a marginal increase in deal signings compared to last year, hiring volume was lower, which has resulted in smaller and more selected RPO deals.
"Moreover, the RPO market is becoming increasingly competitive and this has led to increased M&A activity as new vendors attempt to enter the market while existing vendors seek to strengthen their capability and gain better access to new technologies," the report notes.