The number of UK workers employed in the IT outsourcing sector has dropped, as has its total contribution to the UK economy, according to research by Oxford Economics.
Research into the UK outsourcing sector in 2010 found that total outsourcing was worth just under £199bn in total sales – 7.4% of the UK's total production. IT and data-related services was the biggest sub-sector of outsourcing, contributing £38.7bn of the total for the outsourcing sector.
But the outsourcing sector as a whole dropped from £207bn in 2009, while the IT outsourcing sector dropped by £3bn in the same period.
Employment services was the next biggest outsourcing sub-sector, with sales worth £33.9bn. Property, repair and maintenance outsourcing was the third biggest, with £28.1bn in sales.
About 10% of people, some 320,000, working in outsourcing were in IT services in 2010, compared with 340,000 in 2009. The sector employing the highest number was employment services, with 742,000 people. Property, repair and maintenance outsourcing employed 295,000 people in the UK in 2010.
About £23bn of the £38.7bn generated by UK IT and data-related outsourcing in 2010 was in London and the South East, where 160,000 people were employed.