Early results show that the growth of the call center industry remained stable in 2019 with the creation of approximately 140,000 jobs at 286 call center facilities across the world. These results are slightly lower than 2018 but still reinforce the fact that the call center industry is holding steady. With almost 60,000 of those jobs created in the U.S., domestic expansion has enabled the U.S. to maintain its robust job growth for the year, adding to the tightness of U.S. labor markets.

Outside the U.S., the Philippines and Latin America continue to be the hottest regions for expansion during the site selection process. The Philippines announced more than 53,000 jobs and Latin America created an estimated 14,000 jobs primarily driven by the high-growth business process outsourcing sector.

U.S. expansion continues despite extremely difficult labor conditions

Unemployment rates are at historic lows in the U.S. which is creating a lot of challenges for call centers across the country. Employee attrition and wage rates are increasing as employers are fighting to attract and retain talent especially in the more saturated call center labor markets. Minimum wage laws continue to push entry level wages up further in many states across the U.S. including call center hotspots like Arizona and Colorado. It is more critical than ever to carefully analyze all call center location criteria including labor availability, labor cost, wage inflation, call center saturation, educational institutions, minimum wage laws and call center market activity.

The biggest onshore, nearshore and offshore project announcements of 2019

To help understand call center site selection trends, Site Selection Group has identified the largest onshore, nearshore and offshore call center project announcements of 2019 to illustrate the types of projects that are getting done across the globe. These new project announcements were identified through a filtering process based on jobs created, location and community impact. The following table identifies the top new sites and expansion projects announced in 2019:

Top 25 Onshore Call Center Projects of 2019

Top 25 Offshore Call Center Projects of 2019

Top 15 Nearshore Call Center Projects of 2019