Call center sector hopes to employ 70T this year
The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is looking at employing 70,000 more this year as the Philippines continues to attract offshore jobs.
“We are forecasting to add another US$1 billion in revenues this 2018. That translates to an additional 70,000 more jobs,” said Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) president Jojo Uligan.
The Philippine outsourcing sector now employs a little over 1.4 million people, with an average growth rate of 10 percent annually.
The revenue generated by the call center industry sector reached $13 billion in 2017. This is projected to grow this year by 7 percent to 9percent.
“The industry has continuously evolved to remain competitive and to grow its market share. All of our indicators were saying that we continue to enjoy this growth,” added Uligan.
The entry of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the protectionism stance of the United States are just few of the initial challenges that have been threatening the voice-related outsourcing sector.
However, Uligan assured that despite these headwinds the industry managed to sustain its growth, and adapt the changes of talent requirements.
Contact center players are, likewise, bullish on the industry’s financial performance as shown in positive results of the surveys that the CCAP conducted.
These figures, he explained is aligned with the industry’s existing roadmap, which shows that the call center sector’s revenue is projected to rise by 8.2 percent compounded annual growth to US$20.4 billion between 2016 and 2022.
A big chunk of the over 160,000 BPO employees in Cebu are serving voice-related outsourcing.
“Now on our third year of industry roadmap, the contact center community remains consistent with its forecast of growth given that focus on high complex type of work,” Uligan added.
The entire outsourcing sector currently accounts for 9% of the country’s GDP growth.