BEIJING, May 21 -- China's service outsourcing industry saw robust expansion in the first four months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

Chinese firms inked services outsourcing contracts worth a total of nearly 781.43 billion yuan (about 110 billion U.S. dollars) in the four-month period, up 14.4 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

The executed contract value stood at 520.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9 percent.

Of the total, the value of offshore service outsourcing contracts rose 8.6 percent year on year to 419.04 billion yuan.

In the January-April period, the industry welcomed about 301,000 new hires, with 84.7 percent of these individuals holding a university degree or above.

Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside party to carry out services or produce goods typically undertaken by in-house employees.