Staffing Industry Analysts recently published its Global Staffing Industry Market Estimates and Forecast biannual update. The report provides market sizing and growth forecasts that can aid strategic planning efforts of global IT staffing operators or for those considering an international expansion.
SIA estimates staffing was a $490 billion market in 2018. As shown in Figure 1, this is predominantly temporary staffing ($438 billion). The remainder is comprised of direct hire and retained search. Though SIA forecasts global staffing revenue growth to decelerate to 4% in 2019 from 5% in 2018, the environment remains favorable and the industry is projected to eclipse the half-trillion-dollar milestone this year.
Figure 1: Temporary staffing revenue by region, total and IT segment ($ billions)
Source: SIA, Global Staffing Industry Market Estimates and Forecast: May 2019 Update
Within global temporary staffing, approximately 42%, or $185 billion in 2018, comprises professional staffing segments. IT temporary staffing, at $69 billion, is easily the largest professional staffing segment, accounting for 37% of global professional staffing itself. In fact, IT staffing is more than twice the size of the next-largest professional staffing segment, engineering, which is at approximately $32 billion.
There is variance in this proportion among geographies, however. For example, IT staffing has achieved the greatest market penetration relative to other segments in the Americas, where it accounts for 41% of professional staffing, compared with 35% in Asia Pacific (APAC) and 33% in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA), as shown in Figure 2. Approximately $31 billion of the $34 billion temporary IT staffing market in the Americas is derived from the US.
Figure 2: Professional temporary staffing ($ billions) and percentage attributed to IT
Source: SIA, Global Staffing Industry Market Estimates and Forecast: May 2019 Update
In addition to the estimates shared above, the report provides staffing market sizes and growth forecasts for 28 countries, including some of the larger countries within each region. The report is available now to all corporate members.
