Monday, June 07, 2004
Call center jobs in America are not being lost after all
- Economist (May 29, 04) has an article:
- As per Datamonitor, a research firm, American call centers employed 2.86 m workers at the end of 2003. Over the next 5 years, this number should rise to 2.94 m. A surprising source of demand is Asia, where firms are increasingly outsourcing IT and back-office work to high-tech American firms (how is ‘reverse outsourcing’ as a term). Though only some of this work goes directly to create jobs in America, because these American firms are the likes of global majors IBM and Motorola.
- There are many reasons why American firms might prefer hiring American call-center works to foreign ones. Miscommunication due to different accent is a risk. Also, firms need scale to make outsourcing worthwhile – [as per ClientLogic] American firms need to outsource at least 200 jobs abroad to make it pay. Owners of upmarket brands often prefer to associate with more expensive, American-based customer care.
- As per Datamonitor, America’s call center industry is running close to capacity, and is struggling to meet growing demand.
- It seems to me that offshore call centers will take at least some time to become completely at par with onshore ones.
Permalink, (0) comments