Philippines’ call-center workforce seen hitting 500,000 this year

MANILA – Half-a-million Filipinos will work as call center agents this year, the Contact Center Association of the Philippines said on Tuesday.

Benedict Hernandez, CCAP president, said the call center industry’s workforce will hit 500,000 this year, adding that it is on track to meet its $8.4 billion revenue contribution to the Philippine economy for 2012.

The country’s gross domestic product grew by 6.1 percent in the first half of the year on the strength of consumer spending and the services sector, which includes the business process outsourcing industry.

Last year, the IT-BPO industry generated more than $11 billion in revenues and employed almost 640,000. According to its medium-term roadmap, the industry projects it would grow revenues to $25 billion and employ 1.3 million by 2016.

The call center segment alone expects to corner $14.7 billion of the BPO industry’s revenue, and 816,000 of the total jobs to be created by 2016. –Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com