No.3201
03/30/2023

RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) Market in Japan: Key Research Findings 2022

Corporate RPO Users Rising, Because of Difficulty in Securing Human Resources Especially Young Generation and of Complication of Recruiting Tasks

Yano Research Institute (the President, Takashi Mizukoshi) carried out a survey on the domestic recruitment support business, and found out major market categories, trends of market players, and future outlook.


Transition of Total RPO Market Size (Total Major 3 Categories)
Transition of Total RPO Market Size (Total Major 3 Categories)

Market Overview

The total RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) market size (total of three market categories) in FY2021 was valued at 62,800 million yen, up by 15.0% from the previous fiscal year. In this research, the total RPO market refers to the total of the following three markets: 1) recruitment outsourcing, 2) recruitment management system, and 3) recruitment-related assessment. Although the market size calculated was a reference value, as some market sizes overlapped, the sale performance for all the three markets overwhelmed the previous-year results, as the recruitment activities rapidly recovered in FY2021, in which companies were able to escape from negative influence of the corona crisis, because the economic activities resumed with remote working well organized and new working styles well established.

Noteworthy Topics

Difficulty in Securing Human Resources Generating Higher Momentum for RPO

As the employment population on a downward tendency, securing of young or talented personnel has been more difficult year by year. At the same time, the recruitment processes have become complicated, increasing the time and labor to spend for, which is stimulating the use of RPO.

Despite the recruitment knowledge accumulated over the years at each company, such knowledge has started failing to contribute in successful recruitment in the situation of continuous labor shortage. This has brought about many companies to outsource even the recruitment planning and requisite definition of the personnel wanted, both of which have been the very core of the companies’ recruitment processes and had been done in-house. In addition, such a trend has increased the number of companies placing importance on recruitment in their management theme and proactively investing in it as their business strategy, which is increasing the momentum to utilize the specialty businesses that have the recruitment knowhow.

In such an environment, the demand for the services to solve the recruitment challenges at clients, i.e. the demand for RPO solutions to optimize the recruitment workflows and solve the problems, is expanding steadily, which is expected to be the growth driver for the RPO market expansion.

Future Outlook

In the RPO market, while the total number of new graduates decreasing, causing the recruitment of new graduates to shrink, the opportunity of mid-career recruitment is increasing and has enough room to explore the market, as people are trying to move away from lifetime employment. Because of the  increasing momentum for job changes based on people's own career designing, and the national policy encouraging inflow of human resources into growth business, the demand for recruitment services is expanding steadily, which is projected for the entire RPO market size (total of three markets) in FY2022 to rise by 12.4% on YoY to 70,600 million yen.

All the markets that comprise the entire RPO market are expected to grow during FY2022, as the recruitment outsourcing (RPO +MSP) market is projected to grow by 13.3%, the recruitment management system by 20.8 %, and the recruitment-related assessment market by 6.2% all from the previous fiscal year.

Research Outline

1.Research Period: November 2022 to January 2023
2.Research Object: Recruitment outsourcing companies including those providing mid-career recruitment services, etc.
3.Research Methogology: Face-to-face interviews (including online) by expert researchers, survey via telephone, questionnaire, and literature research

RPO (Recruitment process outsourcing):

The business of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is defined as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), the outsourcing of a company’s various recruitment tasks, including the consulting services that strategically formulate recruitment plans from the business growth aspect, the education and training services, and other related services. In addition to such RPO for hiring regular employees including new graduates, the market also includes employment of part-time and temporary workers and MSP (Managed Service Program) business that procure external human resources such as temporary staff and outsourced contractors.

RPO (Recruitment process outsourcing) Market:
The RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) market in this research refers to the total of major three markets i.e. outsourcing of recruitment processes (RPO + MSP), recruitment management systems, and recruitment-related assessment, calculated based on the sales at businesses. 

<Products and Services in the Market>

Outsourcing of recruitment processes (RPO + MSP), recruitment management systems, and recruitment-related assessment

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