Employment growth in Philippine call center

The Philippines Contact Center for the past two years is practically recession-proof industry and is emerging as one of the most important contributors to its economy. In 2008, output of the outsourcing industry increased to S$ 6.1 billion from US$ 4.5 billion in the preceding year. Overall, the BPO sector accounted for 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2008, while the Philippine economy almost came to economic slowdown, the BPO sector actually grew by 25 percent in 2009. The industry generated revenues increases by 19 percent annually. This makes the Philippines the biggest BPO destination in the Asia Pacific.  The Philippines call center BPO revenues of the industry’s total take of 69 percent, which still account to be the largest portion.

The BPO industry has been continuously opening up job opportunities. Employments in Philippines contact center have sprouted all over the country in the past few years providing jobs to thousands of young graduates. The BPO industry saw an 18 percent growth in employment, in 2009, which total hires reached to 400,000 with 280,000 of those working as call center agents in the Philippines. The BPO sector is not showing any signs of slowing down when it come to creating new jobs. In February 2010 alone, 72 percent of the 25,700 new BPO jobs in the world went to the Philippines, according to a recruitment, and training outfit for call center agents. This is still far from the industry’s employment saturation point.

The CCAP Annual Call Center Conference & Expo is the flagship event of the contact center industry, which attracts around 6,000 executives, managers, supervisors and agents of outsource and in-house contact centers. Now on its sixth run, the exhibit and job fair features more panel discussions with CEOs, analysts, economists, support sectors and call center agents; 32 new conference topics on operations, HR, technology and career development; a new conference track for call center startups called Call Center 101 Plus; more booths at the expo with the latest products and services and a bigger job fair with more job openings.

The employments are really ramping up, with left and right recruitments – seeing to an absolute recovery in the first half. Although this demand for BPO workers is expected to taper off by 2011, but still the industry has the capacity to employ one million Filipinos within the next five years. As the global economy recovers, Philippines contact center is set to increase employment and investment in the country with new demands for outsourcing services.  The contact center industry is already expanding operations and all set to hire thousands of new personnel this year in anticipation of the surge of business growth.

Analysts predict that 2010 will be another banner year for the BPO industry.  Contact center Philippines and other sectors of the industry could rake in between US$11billion to US$13 billion and open up 900,000 additional jobs. The industry is expected growth in the near future is so strong some experts say contact center Philippines is within striking distance of outpacing India as outsourcing’s global capitol. The spike in the BPO industry is spilling over to other industries in the Philippines. The expansion of contact center Philippines operations is projected to absorb the current oversupply in office space.

While contact center Philippines continue to dominate the BPO sector, industry the sector is also evolving beyond voice and leaning, said Virata.  It is moving toward higher-value services and Philippines is now in a position to take on higher-value jobs, after proving its worth as a premier destination for call center services, Richard Mills, director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said. –Ervin Kleitz Gonzales