Women outnumber men in BPOs, says NSO

Women outnumber men in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, but men corner the higher-paying jobs, according to the National Statistics Office.

NSO data showed that 54.9 percent, or 212,990, of the industry’s total workforce are female.

The results of the 2010 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) released recently also showed that women mostly take on jobs in data processing, application hosting, call center and medical transcription services.

“That is the trend in all countries in Asia except in India. My personal guess is, many women are attracted to the customer service jobs which comprise the bulk of our personnel,” Gigi Virata, senior executive director of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, told the Inquirer.

The outnumbered men, however, dominate the higher-paying jobs in software publishing, motion picture, video and television programming post-production and computer programming.

The statistics agency said workers in software publishing get the fattest paychecks with each employee getting an annual compensation of P762,999.

It was followed by employees in computer programming activities with P543,229 and motion picture, video and television programming post-production activities with P495,084.—Niña P. Calleja