Majority of call centre work 'to remain in UK'

The UK call centre industry is still set to see strong growth over the next few years, despite hype about the impact of offshoring, according to new research.

UK Contact Centres in 2004: The State of the Industry by analyst firm ContactBabel predicts there will be a gain of over 150,000 jobs over the next three years, bringing the total UK call centre workforce to over one million - although that does represent a drop in the growth rate of recent years.

The growth, however, will not be across all sectors. Offshoring will hit the finance, telecoms and utilities sectors where there will actually be a decline with a net loss of 5,000 jobs. But contact centres in IT, retail, outsourcing and the public sector are set for strong growth, according to the report.

There are 850,000 people employed by the UK call centre industry currently and the North East relies most heavily on the industry with 4.63 per cent of jobs in the area in call centres compared to the UK average of 2.99 per cent. The North West, Scotland and the South East are, however, the regions tipped to see higher growth with over 20,000 new jobs by 2007.

Steve Morell, principal analyst at ContactBabel, said in the report: "In the long term, offshoring will become an accepted part of the customer service mix for some businesses, especially those with many thousands of contact centre workers. The most likely scenario is that most companies will keep the majority of their contact centre work within the UK."