Philippines Outsourcing continues to register high numbers in Metro Manila in terms of job openings, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Customer service representatives in the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, also called the “sunshine” industry, placed number 8 in the top 10 list of job openings in 2014. The results of the PSA’s Labor Turnover Survey showed that customer service representative positions posted a quarterly average of 2,504, accounting for 2.9 percent of the total.

The figure is not surprising in light of the sustained growth of outsourcing in the Philippines, which has already reached $18.4 billion in revenues. This is expected to increase by 15-17 percent this year. The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said the Philippines outsourcing sector is on track to hit $25 billion in annual revenues and employ 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016.

Meanwhile, the number one job with the highest number of openings in the Metro last year was for cashiers and ticket clerks, with a quarterly average of 11,239. This makes up 13 percent of all available jobs. Open positions were predictably highest during the fourth quarter and holiday season.

Other hot job openings in the top 10 were for sales personnel and product demonstrators (no. 2), accountants and bookkeeping clerks (no. 3), other business professionals or technical and admin staff (no. 4), lawyers (no. 5), technical and commercial sales representatives (no. 6), receptionists and information clerks (no. 7), other office clerks (no. 9), and protective service workers (no. 10).