Attrition levels in the Global ITBPM Industry

By BUDDY VILLASIS, Executive Director, CIB.O | September 8, 2026.
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To get to the bottom of the issue, I dug into multiple sources and all the available evidence, prioritizing industry associations, major contact-center benchmark organizations, research firms, and Philippine government/industry reporting rather than those unreliable generic BPO blogs.

“Philippine contact-center attrition is broadly in line with global industry levels, at approximately 40% annually, although the sector has made significant progress from historical attrition rates of 60–70%.”

Executive conclusion

The most defensible current benchmark is:

Global contact-center agent attrition/turnover is approximately 35–40% annually, with a strong recent benchmark at 39% for 2024. The Philippine contact-center industry is broadly in the same range—approximately 40%—although the best Philippine industry survey reports a 45% total attrition rate for 2022 and 31% voluntary attrition.

The important qualification is that there is no single universally standardized definition of “attrition.” Some surveys report voluntary attrition only; others combine voluntary and involuntary departures; some measure turnover, which can include internal transfers. These figures therefore should not be placed side-by-side without labeling the definition.

The strongest comparison

So, for an industry presentation, “Global: ~39%; Philippines contact centers: ~40%” is a defensible headline if you clearly identify the sources and definitions.

1. The best global benchmark: NICE

One of the strongest contemporary datasets I found is NICE's Managing the Modern Contact Center – Current Employer Trends 2025.

It reports 2024 actual data and found:

· 39% average attrition for contact-center agents

· 34% for back-office employees

· This was down substantially from 2023:

· 49% agent attrition

· 47% back-office attrition

NICE also reports regional variation:

· EMEA: 41%

· North America: 36%

This is particularly useful because it is an actual contact-center workforce benchmark rather than a generic labor-market turnover statistic.

This gives us the strongest recent global reference:

2024 global/contact-center benchmark = 39% annual agent attrition.

That is probably the figure I would use as the primary global comparator.

2. SQM Group provides another strong benchmark

SQM Group has tracked contact-center workforce metrics for more than two decades, primarily among North American contact centers.

Its research found:

· 2021: 35% agent turnover

· 2022: 38%

· 2023: approximately 38%

· 2024: 34%

Its 2024 benchmarking report states that annual agent turnover was 34%, approximately twice the pre-COVID level.

SQM's historical series is particularly valuable because it demonstrates that the current high-30% range isn't simply an isolated post-pandemic observation:

The 2019–2022 series is directly documented in SQM's research.

SQM also characterizes 30–40% as the current industry standard range, compared with ≤20% before COVID.

3. Another important global benchmark: NICE's 2022 survey

NICE's Global Workforce Management Survey found an average contact-center attrition rate of:

42% in 2021.

The study found that:

· companies with ≤1,000 agents had approximately 34%

· organizations with 5,000+ agents reached approximately 50%

· BPOs tended to experience higher-than-average attrition.

This is useful because it reinforces the point that scale and outsourcing model matter significantly. NICE subsequently reported an even higher 49% average in 2023 before dropping to 39% in 2024.

4. The Philippines: the most important source is Customer eXperience Association of the Philippines (CXAP) (formerly known as Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) + Willis Towers Watson

For the Philippines, I would put substantially more weight on the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) survey conducted with Willis Towers Watson than on commercial BPO websites quoting generic ranges.

The survey covered approximately 145 CCAP member organizations.

The results reported:

2021 - 36% voluntary attrition

2022 - 31% voluntary attrition

plus:

· 14.1% involuntary attrition

· 9.9% unauthorized leave/work abandonment

· 1.9% no-show rate

The resulting voluntary + involuntary attrition was approximately 45%.

This is probably the most valuable Philippine benchmark available publicly because it provides an actual industry survey rather than an estimate.

5. The Philippine trend is clearly downward

This is important for CIB.O because simply saying "Philippine BPO attrition is 40–50%" can give an outdated impression.

The CCAP data show a substantial decline.

Philippine contact-center attrition trend

The H1 2023 figure should not be annualized and presented as an annual rate. It is explicitly a six-month observation.

This distinction is critical.

I've seen several online sources incorrectly repeat the 19% number as if it were the Philippine annual attrition rate. It isn't.

6. What did CCAP expect for 2023–2024?

CCAP officials indicated that voluntary attrition would probably finish 2023 around 25–30%.

The organization subsequently expected overall industry attrition to fall below 45% in 2024.

Separately, IBPAP President Jack Madrid said in October 2024 that:

contact centers typically experience attrition of around 40%

while Global In-house Centers were considerably lower at approximately 10–15%.

This is an extremely useful distinction.

7. Philippine contact centers vs. Philippine IT-BPM generally

We need to be careful here.

The Philippine IT-BPM industry is not synonymous with contact centers.

It includes:

· contact centers

· back office

· healthcare information management

· finance and accounting

· IT services

· software development

· global in-house centers

· shared services

· engineering and other specialized services

Contact centers generally have higher attrition than specialized IT-BPM segments.

IBPAP's 2024 statement is particularly useful:

Therefore, using a single "Philippine BPO attrition rate" can be misleading.

For CIB.O's purposes, I would distinguish:

Philippine contact center/BPM frontline operations: ~40%

Philippine IT-BPM overall: lower than the contact-center segment because it includes lower-

attrition specialized/GIC operations.

8. The Philippines is not dramatically worse than the global contact-center benchmark

This is perhaps the most interesting finding.

Using the strongest recent comparable figures:

NICE 2024 global/contact-center: 39%

versus

IBPAP 2024 Philippine contact centers: ~40%

That is essentially the same order of magnitude.

And using the Philippine CCAP/WTW dataset:

Philippines 2022 total attrition: 45%

versus

NICE 2023 global: 49%.

Therefore, the evidence does not support the simplistic claim that Philippine contact-center attrition is dramatically higher than global contact-center attrition.

Instead, the evidence suggests:

The Philippine contact-center industry experiences attrition that is broadly consistent with the international contact-center norm, although it remains high by normal corporate workforce standards.

That is a much more defensible statement.

9. But the comparison changes dramatically when compared with normal industries

This is where the industry narrative becomes important.

Contact centers have structurally high turnover because of:

· repetitive frontline work

· emotional labor

· shift work

· night work

· relatively high mobility between BPO employers

· intense competition for experienced agents

· wage differentials between employers

· career progression

· burnout

· relatively young workforce demographics

NICE reports that only 54% of agents remain beyond two years, illustrating the underlying retention challenge.

And ICMI's research describes contact-center agents as substantially more susceptible to burnout and attrition than many other employee groups.

So a 35–40% annual attrition rate is not normal corporate turnover; it is characteristic of a structurally high-turnover operating environment.

10. ContactBabel adds an important distributional perspective

The ContactBabel/NICE research shows that averages can hide a very wide dispersion.

One ContactBabel benchmark reported:

· ≤10% attrition: 28% of centers

· 11–20%: 26%

· 21–30%: 15%

· 31–50%: 6%

· 50%: 25%

In other words, a meaningful portion of contact centers experience 50%+ annual attrition, while another substantial group operates below 20%.

This is why I would not recommend establishing a single "acceptable global attrition rate."

The appropriate benchmark depends on:

· geography

· customer segment

· work complexity

· channel

· BPO vs captive

· wage position

· agent tenure

· work arrangement

· seasonality

· recruitment market.

11. One particularly important issue: "attrition" vs. "turnover"

This needs to be made explicit in any CIB.O report.

Different organizations use these terms differently.

SQM, for example, distinguishes turnover and attrition and notes that turnover can include people moving internally, whereas attrition can refer specifically to employees leaving without replacement.

Meanwhile, the Philippine CCAP data explicitly separate:

· voluntary attrition

· involuntary attrition

· unauthorized absence

· no-shows.

Recent international contact-center benchmarks place annual agent attrition/turnover in the high-30% range, with NICE reporting 39% for 2024. Philippine industry data are broadly comparable: IBPAP reported contact-center attrition at around 40% in 2024, while the CCAP–Willis Towers Watson survey recorded 45% combined voluntary and involuntary attrition in 2022.

12. The Philippines' historical improvement is significant

The historical trajectory is worth highlighting.

CCAP reported that Philippine contact centers experienced:

60–70% attrition historically, through around 2016.

The rate subsequently fell below 50%.

Then:

36% voluntary — 2021

↓

31% voluntary — 2022

↓

19% voluntary — H1 2023

This suggests that the Philippine industry's retention performance has materially improved over the past decade.

The major factors identified by CCAP include:

· hybrid work

· work-from-home

· provincial/countryside expansion

· better employee flexibility

· skills development

· career opportunities.

CCAP specifically identified flexible work arrangements and provincial expansion as important drivers of declining attrition.

13. There is also an important Cebu implication

This is particularly relevant to CIB.O.

CCAP reported that provincial operations tend to benefit from lower attrition, and specifically connected expansion outside Metro Manila with improved retention.

That has strategic significance for Cebu's competitive positioning.

The argument can be framed as:

Metro Manila → higher talent competition → greater mobility

versus

Cebu / regional hubs → deeper local talent attachment + reduced commuting burden + hybrid/remote options → potential retention advantage.

I would, however, not claim a specific Cebu attrition percentage unless we obtain company-level or Cebu-specific survey data. I found research on Cebu IT-BPM employees, but not a sufficiently representative industry-wide Cebu attrition benchmark to support a precise number.

14. What the 2026 evidence tells us

The Philippine industry has now rebranded from CCAP to the Customer Xperience Association of the Philippines (CXAP) as of May 2026, reflecting the transition from traditional contact centers toward broader, AI-enabled customer experience operations.

CXAP reports that the Philippine CC-BPM workforce reached approximately:

1.68 million in 2025, up from 1.62 million in 2024.

The sector is projected to reach approximately:

1.73 million in 2026.

But I did not find a new publicly reported 2025/2026 CXAP annual attrition survey figure that is sufficiently documented to replace the CCAP/WTW benchmark.

That is an important research finding in itself.

So I would not use an unsourced "2025 Philippine attrition rate" simply because a BPO website publishes one.

15. Recommended benchmark for CIB.O

As a CIB.O presentation, policy paper, investment pitch, workforce study, I recommend using the following framework:

Global contact-center benchmark

~39% annual agent attrition — 2024

Source: NICE Managing the Modern Contact Center – Current Employer Trends 2025.

North American benchmark

34% annual agent turnover — 2024

Source: SQM Group.

Philippine contact-center benchmark

~40% annual attrition — 2024

Source: IBPAP statement reported in October 2024.

Philippine industry survey benchmark

45% total voluntary + involuntary attrition — 2022

31% voluntary attrition — 2022

Source: CCAP/Willis Towers Watson.

FOOTNOTE:

Global benchmark: NICE, 2024 average contact-center agent attrition = 39%. Philippine benchmark: IBPAP, 2024 contact-center attrition ≈40%; CCAP–Willis Towers Watson survey reported 45% combined voluntary/involuntary attrition in 2022 and 31% voluntary attrition. Definitions and survey periods differ and should be considered when comparing figures.

That is, in my assessment, the most defensible formulation based on the available evidence.

A particularly important strategic conclusion

The evidence does not indicate that the Philippines' principal competitive problem is unusually high attrition relative to other global contact centers.

Rather, the Philippines appears to have a global-industry-level attrition problem, while its competitive advantage comes from its:

· large English-speaking workforce,

· customer-service capability,

· established BPO ecosystem,

· scale,

· relatively mature management talent,

· geographic diversification,

· and increasingly sophisticated IT-BPM capabilities.

The more interesting CIB.O question therefore becomes how Cebu can maintain attrition below the Philippine/global benchmark, rather than simply asking whether Philippine attrition is higher than the world.

Source hierarchy:

Tier 1 — Primary/industry research

1. NICE — Managing the Modern Contact Center, 2025 — 2024 global/region attrition.

2. SQM Group — long-running contact-center operational benchmark.

3. CCAP + Willis Towers Watson — Philippine industry Attrition & Retention Survey.

4. IBPAP — Philippine IT-BPM industry benchmark and executive commentary.

5. CXAP — current Philippine industry association and workforce data.

Tier 2 — Corroborating sources

· Philippine News Agency

· Philippine Daily Inquirer

· Philstar

· Manila Bulletin

· ContactBabel

I would not use the many generic BPO blogs quoting "30–40%" or "40–45%" as the primary citation when the original industry data are available.

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