The 2022 global RPO market is estimated to be valued at around USD 8.45 billion: a 14% increase on the 2021 figure. This marks the second consecutive year of strong growth as the effects of the pandemic start to fade and the need for organizations to flexibly scale their workforces increases. Volume and price have both played their part in accelerating market growth.
However, this year is poised to be somewhat less stellar than 2022. SIA forecasts growth at 4%, due to a combination of both macroeconomic uncertainty and cost considerations. This has led to organizations delaying progress with RPO deals in the first half of 2023.
RPO providers have responded to the skills gap with creative solutions to multi-channel sourcing. As well as offering short-term scalability, companies also need access to the right technology stack and skilled employees in order to maximize their return on investment. RPO market leaders have been especially proactive in leveraging parent and sister companies to provide best-of-breed technology integrated into a single stack.
Robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) have both been adopted across the RPO market, with conversational AI and chatbots deployed to manage queries and machine learning used for intelligent profile ranking
