Economic Report 2019

About the World Employment Confederation
The World Employment Confederation is the voice of the employment industry at a global level, representing labour
market enablers from 50 countries as well as seven of the largest international workforce solutions companies.
Members of the World Employment Confederation represent a wide range of HR services, including agency work,
direct recruitment, career management, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Services Provider (MSP).
The World Employment Confederation works to broaden recognition of the positive economic and social role which
the employment industry plays in enabling work, adaptation, security and prosperity. This work involves building
networks with relevant stakeholders such as policy makers, social partners and the academic world; setting highrecruitment and employment standards and practices; acting as a thought-leader shaping futureproof and competitive
labour markets and providing strategic data on employment issues.
Should you have any questions regarding the facts and figures published in this Economic Report, do not hesitate to
get in touch with the World Employment Confederation’s Head Office at info@wecglobal.org.

Contents

Private Employment Industry

02
05

HR services
Agency Work
Direct Recruitment
Career Management
MSP
RPO

10
14
15
16
17

Regional focus
North America
South America
Europe
APAC

18
19
20
21

Foreword

WEC Economic Report 2019|1

Foreword

The private employment industry continued to diversify in 2017. While agency work remained
the core activity, generating the majority of revenue, its share of the global private employment
services industry has remained relatively stable over the past three years at around two-thirds.
Direct recruitment and MSP have both gained traction, with a significant increase of over 50
percent observed in direct recruitment. RPO has also recorded positive growth, although its
share remains small in the total industry landscape.
As a result of this growth, the private employment industry generated €457 billion in global
sales revenues via a network of 165,000 agencies. Across the regions, the outlook is also
positive with countries including Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy and Japan becoming strong
performers. Worldwide, the private employment industry placed 53 million individuals in
employment during 2017.
If you are a regular reader of the World Employment Confederation’s Economic Report, youwill notice that this 2019 edition looks slightly different. We decided to dedicate this report toproviding a comprehensive picture of the private employment industry’s market; both acrossthe different services that we represent and around the world.
In previous reports, we also included data demonstrating how our industry contributes tobetter functioning labour markets by enabling work, adaptation, security and prosperity. We
are working on focusing our social impact reporting and will develop a new way of presenting this data in the near future.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

Denis Pennel
Managing Director

Even Hagelien
Chair of the Economic
Affairs Committee

Private Employment Services
Overview of the private employment services represented in this reportManaged Services
Providers
Agency Workis a triangular employment relationship,
defined in ILO Convention 181 as: “Services
consisting of employing
workers with a view tomaking them available
to a third party, who may
be a natural or legal person (“user enterprise”)
which assigns their tasks
and supervises the execution of these tasks“.

MSP is a service
whereby a company
takes on primary
responsibility for managing an organization’s
contingent workforce
program. Typicalresponsibilities of an
MSP include overall
program management,
reporting and tracking,supplier selection andmanagement, order
distribution and often
consolidated billing.
An MSP may or may
not be independent ofa staffing supplier.

DirectRecruitment
Services for matchingoffers of and applications for employment,
without the private
employment agency
becoming a party to theemployment relationships which may arise
therefrom (Source:
ILO Convention 181),
including executive
search & selection.

Recruitment
Process
Outsourcing
A service by a thirdparty specialist provider,to assume the role ofthe client’s recruiting
department by owningand managing part or
all of its recruitment
process and related
recruitment supply
chain partner relationships, provide the necessary skills, activities,
tools, technologies, andprocess methodologies.

CareerManagement
Main service segments
are individual, executive,
and group outplacement services and other
employment transition
services. In these segments, outplacement
services companies
provide a range of
employment and career
services. These include
resume writing, interview skills, job searchstrategies, coaching
and career guidance.
Employers generally pay
all of the costs associated with these services.

WEC Economic Report 2019|3

Key Findings

In 2017, the private employment services industry generated €457 billion in global sales revenues, which represents anindustry growth rate of 13% year-on-year. The major share of revenue is attributed to agency work, which produced
over €370 billion* alone. In Europe, the five largest markets all experienced growth, with revenue figures for Italy
up 25% compared to 2016. The Dutch agency work market grew by 11%, while the French, the UK and the Germanmarkets are up by 10%, 9% and 8% respectively. Across the Atlantic, the US market grew slightly in 2017 (at least in
dollar terms) and remains by far the largest market worldwide in terms of sales revenues. Turning to the Asian market,
Japan has experienced significant growth in revenue, with agency work turnover increasing by 22% in 2017.
MSP and RPO services have experienced growth across all regions in 2017, with the USA being by far the largest
market for MSP with close to 60%** of global spend. RPO markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have grownby 33% compared to 2016***. Globally, MSP and RPO markets are up by 12%** and 16%*** respectively.
Global revenues for direct recruitment services reached €61 billion in 2017. Again, the US market contributes
the major revenue share to the global figure, having generated more than €23 billion alone. However, the Asianand Pacific markets have gained considerably in size as well, producing €21.3 billion in revenues in 2017. Overall,
the global direct recruitment services industry has grown by more than 50% year-on-year in 2017.
Career transition and Outplacement services, the largest segment of the career management industry, generated
an estimated €2 billion in 2017. With sales revenues estimated at €653 million, the USA is the strongest market.
The Netherlands and Japan share a distant second place – both at €225 million of estimated sales revenues.
In 2017, private employment industries in 50 countries placed 53 million individuals in employment.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

* includes agency work revenue generated through MSPs ** Data from Staffing Industry Analysts *** Data from Everest GroupPrivate Employment Industry

Top 5 Markets (sales revenues)
2017: €317bn

Private Employment Industry Global Market
2017: €457bn
Agency Work: €370bn*** 81%

DirectRecruitment:
€61bn

69%

13%

...through an agency €275bn

of global revenues

In total, the private employment industry generated €457 billion in sales revenues worldwide in 2017. The agency work sector (excluding MSP activities)
produced the largest revenue share, accounting for 60% of the entire market.
MSP and direct recruitment had a revenue share of 5% and 13% respectively,
while RPO and career transition together generated a little above 1% of the total.

60%

MSP
€21bn**
5%...through an MSP €95bn 21%

RPO: €3bn*
Career Transition: €2bn

1%

* Data from Everest Group ** Data from Staffing Industry Analysts***Around 80% of MSP activities are comprised of agency work. This is represented in the split of agency work revenues.

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PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRYAll HR services report market growth
Global sales revenue of HR services: 2016

Career Transition

RPO

Direct Recruitment

MSP (including
AW activities)

Agency Work(excluding MSP
activities)

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WEC Economic Report 2019

| 2017% change2016 | 2017

n/a

€2bn

€2.93bn*+16%€60.77bn

+53%

+10%

€116.20bn**€275.06bn+7%* Data from Everest Group ** Data from Staffing Industry Analysts

PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRY

Overall, the market for private employment services grew organically in 2017, with increases inmarket size being reported for all services across the board. Combined sales revenues from theservices represented - agency work, direct recruitment, career transition as well as Recruitment
Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Services Providers (MSP) - is up 13% compared to 2016.
Agency work still accounts for the major share of the industry, with sales revenues amounting to€275 billion (MSP activities excluded), 60% of total revenue. In 2017, global sales revenues fromthe agency work sector grew by 7%.
The MSP market is the second largest segment of the private employment industry, having surpassed the €100 billion mark and reached €116 billion in 2017 - an annual increase of nearly 10%.*It must be noted that a large share of MSP activity is agency work.**
Data collected indicates that direct recruitment services have seen the most pronounced increasein sales revenue, up more than 50% and reaching €61 billion on a global scale.
Outsourcing of recruitment processes (RPO) has generated a global revenue of nearly €3 billion
in 2017, up more than 16% since 2016.***

+13%
y-o-y

€457bnGlobalHR Services
Industry 2017
Agency work
Direct recruitment
Career transition

The global market size of the career management industry, the lion’s share of which consists ofcareer transition and outplacement services, is estimated at €2 billion as of 2017.
The share of agency work in the global private employment services industry has remained relatively stable at around two-thirds over the past three years. Direct recruitment has gained traction
in 2017, contributing 13% of global sales revenue for the entire industry, compared to around
8% in the previous two years. MSP has also increased its share of total industry revenue, having
surpassed 25% as of 2017. Despite positive growth rates, RPO and career management services’
total market share remains small, largely as a result of their small base.

* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Consult methodology section for more detail. *** Data from Everest Group

Recruitment Process
Outsourcing
Managed Service
Providers

WEC Economic Report 2019|7

PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRY

Number of service providers is rising

Temporary work agencies
As of 2017, there were close to 165,000 private employment
agencies operating around the globe, providing various HRservices to companies wishing to focus on their core activities.
This represents an increase of 16% compared to 2016.
Nearly half of all service providers in the private employment
industry are work agencies. Across the globe, more than 77,000
such agencies provide staff to client companies, up 22% since 2016.
At more than 52,000, a significant share of agencies operate in
the field of direct recruitment.
As the world of work is continually changing and demand forflexibility is growing amongst both employers and employees,
the services provided by private employment agencies are
increasingly sought after.
The number of internal staff working within private employment
agencies reached 2.7 million in 2017, a significant expansion
compared to the year before.

Numberof Private
Employment
Agencies:

164,708
16%
y-o-y

Direct recruitment agencies
Managed Services Providers
Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Career management agencies

Numberof Internal
Staff:

2,695, 524
42%*
y-o-y

Note: The number of private employment agencies presented here is based solely on information collected from members of the World Employment Confederation.
		 The actual number of service providers around the globe is likely higher, as data is not collected for every country.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

* The increase is largely attributed to the development of the private employment industry in Japan, China and Russia.

PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRY

53 million people were placed in the labour market in 2017

Agency work headcounts

In 2017, the private employment services industry placed more than 53 million people in employment relationships, thereby
actively contributing to positive labour market outcomes around the world. The vast majority of employment relationships
were created through agency work, with around 49 million agency workers having found jobs through the industry. Compared
to 2016, the number of people who worked for a temporary work agency has increased by 19.5%. With 15.5 million individuals
having found work in the USA through the services provided by the private employment industry, the USA is at the top of the list,
followed by China, Brazil, Japan and France.

Number ofpeople placed byprivate employment
agencies globally:

MILLION

Numberof placements
through direct
recruitment:

MILLION

Numberof placements
through temporary
work agencies:

MILLION

Note: The number of placements presented here is based solely on information collected from members of the World Employment Confederation. The actual number of		 placements around the globe is likely higher, as data is not collected for every country.

USA

15,500,000

China

8,930,000

Brazil7,800,000

Japan

4,943,952

France2,600,000

India

2,100,000

Germany

1,032,238

Poland863,825

Netherlands

856,638

Spain

708,613

Italy

684,000

Belgium

656,281

Colombia

461,041

Switzerland

364,941

Australia

344,900

Chile

180,000

Mexico170,613

Sweden168,000

Czech Republic

166,000

Portugal

166,000

Ireland130,000

Hungary

124,576

Denmark

120,000

Norway105,000

Austria

91,411

Romania

57,338Finland53,291

Argentina

49,991New Zealand

40,600Russia34,300

Greece29,800

Luxembourg

26,145

Croatia

18,000Bulgaria

10,032Estonia

5,500

Turkey1,000

WEC Economic Report 2019|9HR SERVICES

USA remains largest market for agency work

34.9

5.9*

14.4**

5.9

34.5

20.9

7.5

5.2

3.7*

10.6

116.9

4.2*

6.1

Agency work revenue (billion €), 2017

10

|

USA

Japan

UK

Germany

FranceAustralia

Netherlands

Italy

Switzerland

BrazilCanadaBelgium

Spain

India

China

116.9

53.6

34.9

34.5

20.9

16.4

14.4

10.6

7.5

6.1

5.9

5.9

5.2

4.2

3.7

WEC Economic Report 2019

* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Estimation conducted by ABU based on CBS figures

HR SERVICES

53.6

The USA is by far the largest market of the global agency work industry when consulting annual sales revenue figures.
The market in the USA generated nearly €117 billion in 2017. With around €54 billion of annual sales revenue and a
growth in revenue of 22%, Japan is a distant second, followed by the UK (€35 billion), Germany (€34.5 billion) andFrance (€21 billion). Eight European countries are represented in the top 15 markets for sales revenue within theagency work sector, all of which have experienced positive growth. Belgium is at the forefront with a year-on-yearincrease of 48%. Supported by national regulation favourable to agency work, Brazil has also made the cut andlanded in tenth place of the global market rankings, having reached €6 billion in revenues.
Looking back further over agency work revenue, most of the 15 largest markets measured have grown over the past
three years. India, one of the fastest growing economies, benefits from the second largest workforce worldwide
and the agency work sector has expanded significantly since 2014, with annual revenue figures up almost 250%.
Spain and Italy have experienced revenue increases of 98% and 70% respectively between 2014 and 2017, and similar
trends are observed in Germany (44%), France (24%), the Netherlands (30%) and Switzerland (30%). The UK agency
work market, while having grown by 10% in 2017, is still recovering from its 2016 slump, when revenues dropped by
27%, potentially as a result of the Brexit referendum.
Moving away from Europe, markets in North America are following different trends, with the Canadian market having
gradually contracted between 2014 and 2017 (-58%), whereas the US agency market gained 24% in sales revenue
over the same three year period.

16.4

WEC Economic Report 2019|11

HR SERVICES

Agency work penetration rate remains stable
Agency work penetration rate, 2017%

In 2017, the global average penetration rate for the agency work sector was 1.6%, unchanged
from the previous three years***. The labour market share attributed to agency work varies
significantly across countries. Industry regulation plays an important role, as restrictive laws
generally lead to fewer companies operating in the agency work sector, whereas supportive
legislation allows for the industry to grow and respond to employer demand for a flexible
workforce. Historically, some countries always had more flexible labour markets, and the USA isa prime example, characterized by more job transitions per worker compared to other countries.
For countries with a high share of informality, it is difficult to assess the impact of the agency
work sector, contributing to the differences in penetration rates.

5.1

The UK has the highest agency work penetration rate. As the UK also has a tradition of more lax
regulation, this is evident in the figures. In Germany, 78% of agency workers work in full-time
positions. As a result, the penetration rate is not far below that of France, despite the fact that the
number of agency workers in France is more than twice as large as in Germany.

3.3
3.0
*

2.7
**

2.6 2.5

2.4
2.1

1.9 1.9

1.8
**

1.6
1.3 1.2
1.2

1.1
**

UK

12

|

NL

LU

AU

FR

WEC Economic Report 2019

BE

JP

US

CH

DE

AT

FI

1.6

GLOBAL AVERAGE %

NO

IT

CN

SE

1.0 0.9PLDK

0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6

ES

CZ

EE

BR

0.5 0.5ARHR

0.3 0.3 0.2
*
GR

RO

LT

* 2016 data ** Data from Staffing Industry Analysts *** For more information on the definition for penetration rate consult the Annex

HR SERVICES

Majority of agency workers are employed in services industry
Sectoral distribution of agency workers across regions

GlobalEuropeEastern Europe*

Agriculture
Manufacturing
Construction
Services
Public Admin.
Other

Australia, New Zealand& JapanLatin & South America* Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia ** Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece *** Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland

Southern Europe**

Central & Northern
Europe***

The global trend is that employment in agriculture is gradually declining, with manufacturing taking over in developing
and emerging countries and the services sector capturing an
increasingly large share of the workforce in the developed
world. These trends are visible in the sectoral distribution of
agency workers as well. Globally, and within most regions, theservices sector is the one that employs the largest share ofagency workers. In Eastern Europe, the share of manufacturing
is higher than that of the services sector, whereas the opposite
is true for countries in Central and Northern Europe. Similarly,
the share of agency workers employed in the agricultural andmanufacturing sectors is higher in Latin and South America
compared to Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

WEC Economic Report 2019|13

HR SERVICES

Direct recruitment experiences the strongest growth rate
Direct recruitment turnover in the 15 largest markets (billion €), 201723.4

Direct recruitment services have seen a significant expansion in 2017,with global sales revenue having jumped from €38 billion in 2016 to€61 billion in 2017. This represents a year-on-year increase of morethan 50%, making direct recruitment the fastest growing service in theprivate employment industry. The largest share of global revenue was
generated in the USA, with an annual sales revenue of over €23 billion
in 2017. In Australia, nearly €10 billion in sales revenue brings the country in second on the list, followed by China (€6.7 billion), the UK (€5.5
billion) and Germany (€3.7 billion).

2.1

9.4
6.7
5.5
3.2

14

0.7

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.5

0.6

0.6

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Finland

Italy

South
Korea

Spain

Switzerland

South
AfricaIndia|

WEC Economic Report 2019

0.9

*

3.7

0.9
*

New
Zealand

Colombia

Japan

Germany**

UK

China

Australia

UnitedStates* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Data for 2016

HR SERVICES

USA and Europe lead market for career transition & outplacement
Career transition/Outplacement revenues in top 10 markets (billion €), 2017*

0.65

0.23

0.23

0.14

0.14

0.14

0.07

0.07

0.05

0.03

Based on estimations by members of the World Employment Confederation, the career transition and outplacement services sector (the major segment within the career management industry) reached €2 billion at global
level in 2017. Europe and North America account for the largest share of revenues, each region contributing alittle above €0.7 billion to the total figure. The USA is the largest market with its sales revenues representing 35%of the global figure. Europe’s top markets are: the Netherlands (€0.23 bn), the UK (€0.14 bn), France (€0.14 bn),
Germany (€0.07 bn) and Belgium (€0.05 bn). Turning to the APAC region, Japan and Australia are also strong markets
with sales revenues for career transition and outplacement services at €0.23 billion and €0.14 billion respectively.

* Based on estimations conducted by members of the World Employment Confederation

WEC Economic Report 2019|15

HR SERVICESManaged Services Providers (MSP) record double digit growth across regions
MSP market size, spend (billion €), 2017 - % y-o-y Change*

140

120

MSP markets grew by 12% in 2017 compared to the year
before, having reached a spend under management**of €116 billion globally. With a 57% share, the USA is by far
the largest market, while MSP services are also gaining
traction in the EMEA region, with year-on-year growthof 14% in 2017. In the APAC region and, especially, in
Latin America, MSP markets remain relatively small, butthey too are growing at a double digit rate. According
to Staffing Industry Analysts, 82% of global MSP spendcomprises temporary employees or independent
contractors. The majority of MSP services are deliveredby a vendor-neutral model.

+12%

100

80

+11%

60

+14%

40

+10%

20

0

Global16|

WEC Economic Report 2019

The Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** The amount of currency actually invoiced by suppliers in an MSP relationship. Source: Staffing Industry Analysts.

HR SERVICESEMEA drives strong growth in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
RPO market size, net fee income (billion €), 2017 - % y-o-y Change*

3.5

3.0

The global RPO market grew by 16% in 2017, with net
fee income reaching €2.93 billion. North America is thelargest market for Recruitment Process Outsourcing,
contributing a share of 56% to the global total and generating more than €1.5 billion. Europe, the Middle East andAfrica is the second largest market for RPO services andhas experienced significant growth, with net fee income
having risen by 33% compared to 2016, to reach nearly€1 billion.

+16%

2.5

2.0

+9%
1.5

+33%

1.0

+16%

0.5

+16

%

0

Global* Data from Everest Group

North America

Latin America

EMEA

Asia Pacific

WEC Economic Report 2019|17

REGIONAL FOCUS

North America: USA maintains top rank

Countries included in figures:

Placements

PrivateEmployment
Agencies:

21,285Internal
Staff

406,000

CanadaMexicoUSAMILLION

Agency Work Revenue

MSP Revenue

€124

€70.3

BILLION***BILLION*

Direct Recruitment
Revenue

RPO Revenue

BILLIONBILLION**

€23.7

€1.6

The USA is by far the largest market globally and dominates the North American market, where it contributes tonearly 95% of revenues produced in the agency work sector. The Canadian market has remained relatively stablein 2017, generating €5.9 billion in agency work revenues. This figure is still 58% down on 2014. The Mexican market
remains small, although growth is positive and in double digits for 2017, with agency work revenue up 13% year-on-year.
Turning to MSP, the USA is the largest market worldwide, with an annual spend of €65 billion in 2017.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Data from Everest Group *** Including MSP revenue generated by agency work

REGIONAL FOCUS

South America: Brazil grows three-foldCountries included in figures:
Argentina
BrazilPlacements

PrivateEmployment
Agencies:

10,284

Chile

Internal
Staff

116,000

Colombia
Peru

MILLION

Agency Work Revenue

MSP Revenue

€9.3

€1.3

BILLION***BILLION*

Direct Recruitment
Revenue€1.1
BILLIONRPO Revenue€0.15
BILLION**In South America, Brazil is the largest market, having experienced significant growth in the agency work sector. On
a global level, Brazil is the tenth-strongest performing market. Partly explained by new national regulations favorable
to the employment sector, the Brazilian market has jumped from €1.9 billion in 2016 to €6 billion in 2017.

* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Data from Everest Group *** Including MSP revenue generated by agency work

WEC Economic Report 2019|19

REGIONAL FOCUS

Europe: Italy and Spain see market boost
Countries included in figures:

Placements

PrivateEmployment
Agencies:

80,497

Internal
Staff

502,000

MILLION

Agency Work Revenue€153
BILLION**MSP Revenue€31.1
BILLION*

Direct Recruitment
Revenue€13.9
BILLION

In Europe, the UK is the largest market, generating 23% of agency work revenue in 2017, closely followed by Germany
which was responsible for 22.5%. France and the Netherlands represent 14% and 9% of the European agency market,
respectively. Overall, eight of the largest fifteen agency work markets globally are located in Europe. While most
European markets have experienced positive market growth rates, Spain and Italy have seen a particularly impressive
market boost, with revenue between 2014 and 2017 up 98% and 70% respectively.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

Austria

Lithuania

Belgium

Luxembourg

Bulgaria

Netherlands

Croatia

NorwayCzech Rep.

PolandDenmark

PortugalEstonia

Romania

Finland

RussiaFranceSlovakia

Germany

Slovenia

GreeceSpain

Hungary

SwedenIreland

Switzerland

Italy

TurkeyLatviaUK* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Including MSP revenue generated by agency work

REGIONAL FOCUS

APAC: Direct recruitment market gets particularly strong
Countries included in figures:
Australia
China

Placements

India

Internal Staff

48,197Japan
New Zealand

PrivateEmployment
Agencies:

MILLIONMILLION

South Korea

Agency Work Revenue

MSP Revenue

€79.3

€9.8

BILLION***BILLION*

Direct Recruitment
Revenue€21.4
BILLIONRPO Revenue€0.35
BILLION**

Japan, Australia and China are among the fifteen largest agency work markets globally and among the top five largest direct
recruitment markets. Within the region, Japan is the strongest-performing market with private employment services revenue of €57 billion in 2017. When focusing on direct recruitment services and MSP, Australia is very strong, with market sizesof €9.4 billion and €4.9 billion respectively. Considering the size of the population in relation to that of China, which is thesecond-largest direct recruitment market (€6.7 billion), this illustrates the maturity of the Australian market.

* Data from Staffing Industry Analysts ** Data from Everest Group *** Including MSP revenue generated by agency work

WEC Economic Report 2019|21

ANNEX

Glossary of Terms Used and Acronyms

Agency Work

Direct Recruitment

Private Employment Services / Employment Industry

Agency work is a triangular employment relationship,
defined in ILO Convention 181 as: “Services consistingof employing workers with a view to making themavailable to a third party, who may be a natural or legal
person (“user enterprise”) which assigns their tasks
and supervises the execution of these tasks“. It canbe named as Dispatched Labour in Asia, Labor Hire in
Africa or Temporary Staffing in the USA.

Services for matching offers of and applications for
employment, without the private employment agency
becoming a party to the employment relationships
which may arise therefrom (Source: ILO Convention181), including executive search & selection.

Agency work is usually one of several other HR services
provided by recruitment and employment agencies,
along with direct recruitment, career management,
RPO & MSP. The collective name for these services isprivate employment services. The employment agency
provides a professional service to a user company bytaking over (a part of) the recruitment and HR process. In
this sense, private employment services are comparable
to other professional and business services such as
auditing & accounting, communications & marketing,facilities management etc.

Career Management
Main service segments are individual outplacement
services, executive outplacement services, groupoutplacement services and other employmenttransition services. In these segments, outplacement
services companies provide a range of employment
and career services. These include resume writing,interview skills, job search strategies, coaching andcareer guidance. Employers generally pay all of thecosts associated with these services.
Daily Average Number of Agency Workers (in FTEs)
Total number of hours worked by all agency workers
in a country over a period of one year divided by theaverage number of hours worked over a period of one
year by a worker with a full-time job with an openended contract.

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WEC Economic Report 2019

Managed Services Provider (MSP)
MSP is a service whereby a company takes on primary
responsibility for managing an organization’s contingent
workforce program. Typical responsibilities of an MSP
include overall program management, reporting andtracking, supplier selection and management, order
distribution and often consolidated billing. The vast
majority of MSPs also provide their clients with avendor management system (VMS) and may have aphysical presence on the client’s site. An MSP may or
may not be independent of a staffing supplier.
Penetration Rate
Daily average number of agency workers [in fulltime equivalents] divided by the working population[as defined by the ILO as follows: “The employedcomprise all persons of working age who during a
specified brief period, such as one week or one day,were in the following categories: a) paid employment(whether at work or with a job but not at work); orb) self-employment (whether at work or with anenterprise but not at work).“

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
A service by a third-party specialist provider, to assume
the role of the client’s recruiting department byowning and managing part or all of its recruitment
process and related recruitment supply chain partner
relationships, provide the necessary skills, activities,
tools, technologies, and process methodologies.

ANNEX

Methodology

The data presented in this report is for the calendar
year 2017. Sources vary depending on the data, but
the majority of the figures are collected by the World
Employment Confederation from its national federation
members. This is primarily the case for the agency
work market. Some national federations gather data
directly from their respective members, whereas others
contribute by collecting data from public sources or
research partner institutions. The World Employment
Confederation also partners with Staffing Industry
Analysts, allowing for a more complete assessment of
the industry across different HR services (e.g. MSP). The
figures on the RPO market originate from Everest Group.
Whenever a figure did not come directly from membersof the World Employment Confederation, it is indicatedby a footnote.
For the calculation of the total global market size ofthe private employment services industry, five service
segments have been included: agency work, direct
recruitment, MSP, RPO and career transition services.
Due to the fact that a major share of MSP activities
are agency work, there exists an overlap of revenue
figures across these two segments. Therefore, for theassessment of the global market size to be more accurate,
82% of global MSP revenue has been subtracted fromthe sum of revenues of the five service segments.

For the 2019 edition of the Economic Report, themethodology in calculating the market size of thevarious services has been updated. Figures reported inprevious editions of the report are therefore not to becompared with figures in the current version.
It must be noted that some figures presented in thisreport may be underestimating the true picture, since
the World Employment Confederation does not havemembers in every country providing statistics. Thisis specifically the case for the number of agencies
and internal staff. Note also that a lack of information
on specific countries does not mean that private
employment services are not provided in that country.
In case of general or specific questions on themethodology, please contact Robin Lechtenfeld,
Labour Market Intelligence Officer at the WEC Head
Office (robin.lechtenfeld@wecglobal.org).

WEC Economic Report 2019|23

Members of the World Employment Confederation
National Federations
NORTH AMERICAAFRICANORTH EAST ASIAEUROPE

Canada (CA)Mexico (MX)USA (US)

Morocco (MA)South Africa (ZA)

China (CN)Japan (JP)South Korea (KR)Austria (AT)
Belgium (BE)
Bulgaria (BG)
Croatia (HR)Czech Republic (CZ)
Denmark (DK)
Estonia (EE)
Finland (FI)France (FR)Germany (DE)Greece (GR)
Hungary (HU)

LATIN AMERICA
Argentina (AR)Brazil (BR)Chile (CL)Colombia (CO)Peru (PE)Corporate Members

24|

WEC Economic Report 2019

APAC SOUTHERN
Australia (AU)India (IN)Indonesia (ID)
New Zealand (NZ)
Philippines (PH)Singapore (SG)Vietnam (VN)

Ireland (IE)
Italy (IT)
Latvia (LV)
Lithuania (LT)
Luxembourg (LU)
Netherlands (NL)
Norway (NO)Poland (PL)Portugal (PT)
Romania (RO)Russia (RU)
Slovakia (SK)Slovenia (SI)Spain (ES)Sweden (SE)Switzerland (CH)
Turkey (TR)UK (UK)

Disclaimer
This Economic Report is owned by the World Employment Confederation, whose registered office is at Tour &Taxis Building, Avenue du Port 86c, Box 302, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Care and precaution were taken to ensurethat the information published in this report is accurate but the World Employment Confederation publishes thiscontent as supplied and is not responsible for its accuracy or timeliness. You must take appropriate steps to verify
this information before acting upon it. Any use of this report or its content, including copying or storing it inwhole or in part, other than for personal, media-related purposes or non-commercial use, is prohibited without
the prior permission of the World Employment Confederation. In any case, the source of the information to be
published should be mentioned as ©World Employment Confederation – Economic Report 2019.

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