IT- BPM posted growth in 2020

The information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) Industry managed to earn a little more and hire a few more workers in 2020, a small growth that speaks volumes about the its ability to continue to grow despite a pandemic and a recession.

The industry added 23,000 new workers to its workforce last year, bringing the total to 1.32 million, or a 1.8 percent growth from 2019 level, according to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP). It also saw its revenue inch up by 1.4 percent to $26.7 billion last year.

While the figures are lower than the industry’s forecasts years ago, IT-BPM firms fared better than other industries amid the pandemic.

“These [growth] numbers come as very welcome news for the industry especially with the country’s GDP slipping by 9.6 percent in 2020,” Rey Untal, president and CEO of IBPAP, said in a statement.

Last year, country’s the gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 9.6 percent, the worst on record since World War II, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Last year also saw unemployment rate hitting the highest since 2005 at 10.3 percent.

In November last year, IBPAP lowered its growth forecasts for 2022. It tapped research firm Everest group to do a recalibration study to see how the pandemic would affect the industry. INQ