BPO needs 200,000 workers

More than 200,000 jobs in the business process outsourcing industry remain to be filled today of the nearly half a million positions in the sector.

Dennis Arroyo, policy and planning director of the National Economic and Development Authority, said in a recent employment forum that while there was a manpower need of about 350,000 in call centers in the country, only 220,000 had been filled, leaving a gap of about 130,000.

In the software industry, only 21,000 positions in the 75,000 jobs available were hired while just 10,000 jobs out of the total 32,000 jobs in transcription business were occupied.

About 10,000 positions out of the total 25,000 available have been filled in animation industry while 500 out of the 1,000 positions in gaming were manned.

Oscar Sañez, chief executive of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, confirmed the need to fill the huge number of available positions in the BPO industry today, despite reports that call center operator Accenture trimmed 500 out of its 16,000 workers while eVentus did away with its legal vertical.

“There are jobs available. We are the only industry that promised to create 100,000 jobs this year,” Sañez said during the announcement of ICT Awards Philippines 2009 yesterday.

There are a total of 500 to 600 BPO companies in the Philippines, with about 250 belonging to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

The BPO industry contributed $6 billion to the economy in 2008, up 26 percent from 2007. The industry is projected to grow 20 percent to 30 percent to $7.5 billion to $8 billion this year.

Sañez said another 40,000 to 50,000 jobs would become available after some call center and BPO workers started to leave their company for other jobs this year.

The association teamed up with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to recognize the outstanding performance of BPO companies. On March 26, the two groups will declare the winners of BPO Company of the Year, BPO Employer of the Year, Best Mid-Sized BPO Company, Multi-sourcing Company of the Year, Best New BPO Locator and other awards.

Sañez said the growth in BPO was benefiting Metro Manila and other areas of the country.

Neda Regional Office 7 director Marlene Rodriguez said “investors are still bullish on the IT-enabled industry,” especially BPOs, contact and shared services centers in Cebu and Central Visayas.

Rodriguez cited a study from Tholon, a full-service strategic advisory firm for global outsourcing and investments, which showed Cebu as the top emerging outsourcing city worldwide.- Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today