US Call Center Industry sees Negative Growth

The month of April saw the US call center industry actually contract by approx 675 jobs after months of positive growth. The net reduction was cited in the April 2012 Call Center Openings & Expansions Report, published by the Site Selection Group.
Based on major announcements of openings expansions and closings the report saw global increase in call center jobs of almost 4,000. 61% of the increase in new call center jobs was found in the US, but so were job losses of approximately 8,600.

The biggest job creation announcements were Apple creating 3,600 jobs in their Austin TX campus and Wells Fargo creating 1,500 jobs in Tagiug City in the Philippines. The largest reductions were seen at T-Mobile who eliminated 3,000 jobs.

For the first time in a number of months there were two new job creation announcements in Canada. Canada has struggled under a strengthening dollar and weak demand from US clients for its near-shore call center solutions. Announcements by Northstar of 288 jobs in Fort Erie and Transcom with 150 new jobs in Barrie ON represent a small amount of good news for the Canadian industry.