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Growth in Philippine Call Centers jacked up by global crisis?

Turns out the credit crisis and the recession in the United States had some unwittingly beneficial effect in the BPO and call center industry in the Philippines. I would have expected job cuts around this time but it seems there’s some massive expansion going on.

call centersA friend, who works in one of the top call centers in the Philippines, revealed they’ve been doing rapid expansion and is opening up at least 5 more locations around the country from this year to next year. There’s one in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, then in Cebu, the newly built Greenbelt 5, the UP Science Center in Q.C., and San Lazaro, Manila.

If that’s any indication, I’d say the BPO industry in the Philippines is still growing despite the recession. But how did that happened?

My friend explains that because of the financial crisis in the US, there were a lot of job cuts going around. These job cuts are cost-cutting measures — no new hires in the US; all replacements are made in somewhere else where it’s cheaper (including) the Philippines.

It makes sense actually — for every seat you drop in the US, you can get as much as 4 to 5 new seats in the Philippines at the same cost.

The industry will still survive. It’s just a matter of resource allocation and cost-reduction. While the Philippines may not be immune to the same economic crisis, it has proven still that our labor force is cost-effective.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

35 Responses

  1. Avatar for Steven Kenneth Steven Kenneth says:

    And I’m sure it’s still growing.

  2. Avatar for asiateloutsourcing asiateloutsourcing says:

    Yes call centers and the outsourcing business in general is booming.its a great news to Thousands of young graduate. Sounds Good

  3. Avatar for Lace Manufacturers Lace Manufacturers says:

    its a great news to Thousands of young graduates who would have been jobless, and will find employment in call centres.

  4. Avatar for Business Process Outsourcing Business Process Outsourcing says:

    Oh really. I read in one article, Call center services started at Philippine and this country is the giving best call center services. I think now all the business are good and doing well. What is the position of this country. is this country still in same position?

  5. Avatar for business process outsourcing business process outsourcing says:

    Oops! I astonished;how for? really this is a good industry there is no down period; when all fields are in fall…

  6. Avatar for Outsourcing Call Centers Outsourcing Call Centers says:

    Eventually, the call center in the Philippines is expected to develop more than ever in the coming years. So let’s continue servicing our customer’s concern that international clients will trust unto us.

  7. Avatar for philippine contact center philippine contact center says:

    BPO industry in the Philippines has been continuously opening up employment opportunities even as other countries continue to struggle with their lagging job markets because of the recession. Thousands of young graduates who would have been jobless found employment in call centers and contact center Philippines that sprouted all over the country in the past few years.

  8. Avatar for Business Lead Generation Business Lead Generation says:

    Despite from the global crisis that threatens our economy, there are still positive sides that we can benefit.Trying to be optimistic, local business leaders say that the slowdown in the US economy would benefit the Philippines as it creates unique opportunity, our country being an attractive investment destination.

  9. Avatar for Philippines Call Center Philippines Call Center says:

    call centers in the Philippines are taking in Billions now and they say by 2011 it will increase by another 15% thats staggering compared to any other industry, is it not?

  10. Avatar for Kristina Kristina says:

    It is true that a lot of US companies are outsourcing to cut costs even up to the present. The most recent that I’ve heard of is that GM (General Motors) has ventured to the BPO industry already with a Philippine Call Center.

  11. Avatar for call center philippines call center philippines says:

    I also noticed that despite the recession, the Sunday Paper job ads are full of openings for call center type jobs.

    It actually make sense that the BPO industry would increase in times of recession since people in the US would find ways to cut down costs which is what BPO is all about.

  12. Avatar for Jules Jules says:

    The best medium to long term strategy for call centers in the Philippines to adopt is to upgrade their skillsets into more value added disciplines like computer programming and engineering design. Specifically LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Apache), Oracle, SAP and Java/C++/Embedded Systems for these are the skillsets of the future to improve business operations. This is the reason why so many of our countrymen are now living in Singapore because they were pirated from companies operating in our country. Our edge in language skills is slowly being eroded by the improvement in our Asian neighbors and Eastern European countries that are also building an army of English proficient cheap by western standards, knowledge workers. Sooner or later we won’t be as competitive as they are. You should all remember that multinational companies have no loyalty to one particular country. They are loyal to their bottomline and shareholders. They will do whatever means possible to accomplish their goals even at the expense of leaving the Philippines for another cheaper country to achieve better cost efficiencies. That is all the more reason for call center workers to plan one step ahead of that imminent scenario.

  13. Avatar for raymond raymond says:

    well its still better to keep the business than lose it after all. if im an owner of a business and im facing a big loss bec of something like recession, then i would certainly look for an alternative way to get my business going

    but still..not all BPO companies look at this option. they would rather lay some people off than to look for another option simply bec its the fastest way they could do to hold their money.

    its really hard to see people, who has become a family, getting out of the company.

  14. Avatar for eve yap eve yap says:

    SHOULD THERE BE ANY NEWLY OPENED CALL CENTERS PLANNING FOR EXPANSION, W/C WILL BE NEEDING AN I.T. EQUIPMENTS SUCH AS LAPTOP,DESKTOP,MONITORS, SERVERS,WORKSTATIONS,PROCURVE SWITCH, PRINTERS. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK ME—
    Eve Yap
    (Corp. Sales Exec.)/
    Email: Eve****@****.***
    /Direct KLine: 8112878 loc.215
    /mobile#: 091865***** — OR YOU MAY BROWSE OUR LINK http://www.phildata.com/.

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