The country’s vastly labor-intensive business process outsourcing sector is expected to pay out a total of P247 billion in wages this year, House Deputy Majority Leader Roman Romulo said yesterday.
Romulo said BPO firms on average spend around 40 to 45 percent of their revenues to compensate their staff. This is understandable since the industry is basically adding high-value labor services.
At this rate, BPO providers would be disbursing approximately $5.85 billion in salaries this year, on projected industry revenues of up to $13 billion, Romulo, who represents the lone district of Pasig City in Congress said in a press release.
Consumption spending which results from the wages paid by BPOs in turn has helped to create recurring demand for goods and services, thus perking up domestic industries, he pointed out.
“To put the P247 billion into perspective, it is equal to around 14 percent of the national government’s P1.816-trillion spending program this year, and larger than the budgets of the top five departments,” Romulo said.
The Department of Education is spending P238.8 billion this year; Department of Public Works and Highways, P125.5 billion; Department of National Defense, P107.9 billion; Department of the Interior and Local Government, P101.4 billion; and the Department of Agriculture, P54.1 billion, the press release said.
A previous survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that BPO employees on average receive P383,863 in annual compensation, it added.
The BPO industry is projected to rake in up to $27 billion in annual revenues and directly engage some 1.3 million Filipino workers by 2016.
It posted $11 billion in revenues on a labor force of 638,000 in 2011, the press release said.
This year, the sector hopes to create 126,000 new jobs and generate $2 billion in extra earnings, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, it added.
The industry encompasses contact center services; back offices; medical, legal and other data transcription; animation; software development; engineering design; and digital content, the press release also said.*
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