Claire FountainHiring a virtual assistant is a great way to save time and money, but what does the industry look like right now?
As a company that would be lost without our virtual assistants, we were dying to know what the outlook for this essential position is like.
Here are 51 virtual assistant statistics and trends for 2024.
Why Should You Trust Us
Advertising Disclosure
Advertising Disclosure
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
Key Statistics
Here are the highlights:
- The market size of the virtual assistant industry is projected to reach $25.63 billion by the year 2025.
- Hiring a virtual assistant can decrease companies’ costs by 78%.
- It’s estimated that there are over 40 million virtual assistants worldwide across freelance platforms and agencies.
- The Philippines is one of the most popular places to outsource virtual assistants from because of the shared language and similar cultures.
- 66% of businesses in the US outsource at least one department.
Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assitant
The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are many, but some of the most common advantages to hiring virtual assistants include cost savings, time savings, and flexibility.
- Hiring full-time virtual assistants could save an employer in the U.S. more than $11,000 per year.
- On average, companies save 22 minutes of time each day by utilizing virtual assistants.
- 59% of businesses cite cost savings as the main reason for using outsourced workers.
- 24% of small businesses outsource work to virtual assistants to improve efficiency.
- Productivity increases by at least 13% when employees work remotely.
- The Philippines and India stand as key hubs for recruiting VAs due to their cost-effective plans starting from $400 per month.
- On average, executives spend an average of 16 hours per week on administrative tasks, which is easily reduced by hiring a VA.
- Virtual assistants can improve workforce efficiency by 35%
Virtual Assitant Demographics
Who are the VAs doing all of this work?
Predominantly women, often white, and frequently over the age of 40, though there are a large number of VAs overseas in the equation.
- 87.6% of virtual assistants are women and 12.4% are men.
- Even though the VA workforce is predominantly made up of women, there is still a pay gap in the profession, with women earning 93 cents for every dollar earned by men.
- 79% of virtual assistants are 40+ years old.
- The Philippines has most of the world’s virtual assistants at 13%.
- Married virtual assistants account for 69.3% of the workforce.
- 16.0%of VAs are Hispanic or Latino.
- 9.1% of VAs in the US are Black or African American.
VA Stats by Industry
The most common industries where
- The largest percentage of virtual assistants work in the tech industry.
- The industries that most often outsource work are Information Technology (IT), Finance/Accounting, and Healthcare, and even Real Estate.
- Customer service is the most common virtual assistant task.
- Virtual assistant statistics point to over 20 types of virtual assistants.
- 49% of companies hiring VAs have more than 1,000 employees.
- The most in-demand virtual assistant services are marketing and sales.
- the most common industries that hire VAs are Entrepreneurship (28%) Consulting (14%) and Coaching (9%).
- This is followed by Marketing (8%), Technology (7%), and Education (6%).
We already know that the virtual assistant industry is set to reach $25.63 billion by next year, but let’s look at how much a VA could cost your company.
- The worldwide market for virtual assistants is projected to expand at an annual growth rate of 30% by 2025.
- According to Wikipedia, the count of individuals identifying as “Virtual Assistants” is estimated to be near 25,000.
- Freelancers in the US are expected to reach over 86.5 million by 2027.
- 50% of the U.S. workforce could be virtual by 2028.
Salaries
How much are VAs making? It depends on where they live! But here’s a more detailed look at the average VA salaries and the factors that affect them.
- the average hourly pay for a virtual assistant in the US is $24.40, with a range of $11.54 to $33.89.
- According to Glassdoor, the median total pay for a virtual assistant in 2024 is $67,581 per year, with an average salary of $56,003 per year.
- Glassdoor also estimates that the total pay range for a virtual assistant is $51,000–$90,000 per year
- With an annual salary of $85,194, San Francisco is the highest-paying city for remote assistants in the USA.
- The yearly salary of an Entry-Level Virtual Assistant is approximately $29,000.
- Virtual assistant salaries at IBM are the highest compared to any other company.
- 87.7% of virtual assistants receive compensation on an hourly basis.
- One of the lowest salaries (because of the cost of living) for VAs is the Philippines, with an average salary of $25,000 per year, or ₱27,140 per month.
VA Career and Education
What level of education do most VAs have? In the US, almost all of them have a college degree. The global average is also pretty high level education-wise.
- 91% of virtual assistants in the United States have a college degree.
- Six out of 10 virtual assistants boast college degrees.
- Data entry is the most common skill found on resumes for virtual assistants, appearing on 9.3% of virtual assistant resumes.
- A virtual assistant’s second most common hard skill is customer service, which appears on 7.8% of resumes.
- 59% of virtual assistants are engaged in full-time employment.
Trends and Future Outlook of the VA Industry
The future is bright for the VA industry! Expected to grow in the immediate and far-away futures, the VA industry’s outlook is positive.
- The global virtual assistant services market size was valued at USD 4.12 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.4% from 2021 to 2028.
- The number of virtual assistants worldwide was estimated at 3.9 million in 2020 and is projected to reach 8.4 million by 2028.
- More than 80% of companies want to use a more flexible workforce in the future.
- The VA industry is projected market size of $30 billion by 2026.
- This market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.29% in the next year.
Looking to cash in on these trends and save money? Try OnlineJobs.ph, home to the largest number of freelance VAs in the Philippines (review here.)
Sources:- https://insidea.com/blog/virtual-assistant/latest-virtual-assistant-stats/
- https://aovup.com/stats/virtual-assistant/
- https://thereistalent.com/virtual-assistant-statistics-2022-2/
- https://ddiy.co/hire-filipino-workers/
- https://www.zippia.com/advice/outsourcing-statistics/
- https://www.myoutdesk.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://zipdo.co/statistics/virtual-assistant/
- https://www.zippia.com/advice/outsourcing-statistics/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/key-statistics-outsourcing-optionshire/
- https://www.myvirtudesk.com/blog/cost-savings-with-virtual-assistants
- https://invedus.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics-va-statistics/
- https://www.coadvantage.com/how-much-time-do-you-spend-on-administrative-non-core-tasks/
- https://insidea.com/blog/virtual-assistant/latest-virtual-assistant-stats/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/#gender-statistics
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/#age-statistics
- https://aovup.com/stats/virtual-assistant/
- https://aovup.com/stats/virtual-assistant/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/
- https://www.doxatalent.com/services/
- https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/business-process-outsourcing-bpo-market
- https://99firms.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics
- https://aovup.com/stats/virtual-assistant/
- https://aovup.com/stats/virtual-assistant/
- https://invedus.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics-va-statistics/
- https://invedus.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics-va-statistics/
- https://zipdo.co/statistics/virtual-assistant/
- https://www.prialto.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics
- https://99firms.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://www.slideshare.net/upwork/freelancing-in-america-2017/1
- https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Virtual-Assistant-Salary
- https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/virtual-assistant-salary-SRCH_KO0,17.htm?clickSource=searchBtn
- https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/virtual-assistant-salary-SRCH_KO0,17.htm
- https://99firms.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/salary/
- https://insidea.com/blog/virtual-assistant/latest-virtual-assistant-stats/
- https://truelist.co/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/philippines-virtual-assistant-salary-SRCH_IL.0,11_IN204_KO12,29.htm
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/demographics/
- https://99firms.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/skills/
- https://www.zippia.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/skills/
- https://truelist.co/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://invedus.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics-va-statistics
- https://invedus.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics-va-statistics/
- https://99firms.com/blog/virtual-assistant-statistics/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-virtual-assistant-hiring-emerging-trends-strategies-3rsvc
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-virtual-assistant-hiring-emerging-trends-strategies-3rsvc
Geoff Cudd
