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

Company# of JobsLocationExpansion Type
Progressive Insurance2,000Cleveland, OHExpansion
Progressive Insurance1,500Tampa, FLExpansion
Allstate1,300Irving, TXNew Site
DXC Technologies1,200Conway, ARExpansion
TaskUs1,200San Antonio, TXNew Site
Teleperformance1,124El Paso, TXNew Site
Progressive Insurance1,100Colorado Springs, COExpansion
Brex1,000Salt Lake City, UTNew Site
Chime Solutions1,000Charlotte, NCNew Site
Chime Solutions1,000Dallas, TXNew Site
Macy’s1,000Clearwater, FLExpansion
Progressive Insurance1,000Austin, TXExpansion
T-Mobile1,000Kingsburg, CANew Site
T-Mobile1,000Overland Park, KSNew Site
T-Mobile1,000Rochester, NYNew Site
Alorica900San Antonio, TXExpansion
Faneuil Inc.700Albuquerque, NMNew Site
Global CallCenter Solutions600Columbus, GANew Site
Pentagon Federal Credit Union600San Antonio, TXNew Site
Wayfair600Springfield, ORNew Site
PNC Bank560New Braunfels, TXNew Site
Ford Motor Co500Houston, TXNew Site
Intuit500Bluefield, WVNew Site
Wayfair500Athens, GANew Site
Wayfair500Lansing, MINew Site

Top 25 Offshore Call Center Projects of 2019

Company# of JobsLocationExpansion Type
Alorica9,000PhilippinesExpansion
iQor5,000PhilippinesExpansion
Telus International5,000Quezon City, PhilippinesNew Site
Dito Telecommunity Corp4,000Clark, PhilippinesNew Site
Amazon3,200PhilippinesNew Site
VXI2,000Quezon City, PhilippinesNew Site
Sitel1,500Tarlac, PhilippinesNew Site
BasicFirst1,400Randhi, IndiaNew Site
ARB Call Facilities1,000Alabang, PhilippinesNew Site
ARB Call Facilities1,000Bacolad City, PhilippinesNew Site
Global Health Care Billing Partners1,000IndiaNew Site
Ibex1,000Alabang, PhilippinesNew Site
Ibex1,000Bohol, PhilippinesNew Site
Ibex1,000Quezon City, PhilippinesNew Site
Open Access BPO1,000Makati, PhilippinesNew Site
PayPal1,000Alabang, PhilippinesNew Site
Transcom1,000Manila, PhilippinesNew Site
VXI1,000Davao, PhilippinesNew Site
Telus International800Taguig, PhilippinesNew Site
Inspiro750Quezon City, PhilippinesNew Site
Essilor500Alabang, PhilippinesNew Site
Infosys500Alabang, PhilippinesNew Site
TaskUs500Indore, IndiaNew Site
Teledirect500Cebu, PhilippinesNew Site
Uber500Clark, PhilippinesNew Site

Top 15 Nearshore Call Center Projects of 2019

Company# of JobsLocationExpansion Type
Amazon2,000Costa RicaExpansion
Conduent2,000Montego Bay, JamaicaExpansion
ERC1,000Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicNew Site
Startek1,000Tegucigalpa, HondurasNew Site
Sykes1,000Costa RicaExpansion
Teleperformance850Montego Bay, JamaicaNew Site
KM2 Solutions800Bogota, ColumbiaNew Site
Transparent BPO700Belmonpan, BelizeNew Site
Global Telesourcing550Monterrey, MexicoExpansion
24-7 InTouch500Bogota, ColumbiaNew Site
NK Customer Solutions500JamaicaNew
Transparent BPO465BelizeNew Site
Roche400San Jose, Costa RicaNew Site
Bill Gossling300Costa RicaNew Site
Bayer215San Jose, Costa RicaExpansion