Sumeet Desai

LONDON: Britain's call centers are set to hire 200,000 extra workers over the next three years, a government-sponsored study said, even though firms continue to move many such jobs to countries like India.

Call centers have become big news in Britain in recent months as a string of major companies have announced they are moving customer support operations to low-cost centers in Asia, provoking the anger of unions bemoaning the loss of jobs.

But the study, commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry, said that despite concern the British call center industry was shrinking, the sector was healthy and would employ more than a million people by 2007, four times more than in India.

"This report shows that we have a vibrant call center industry in the UK," said Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. "In fact it predicts a growth in call center jobs."

Hewitt launched the study in December in response to concerns about jobs going abroad and the global challenges facing the industry.

Around 30 firms have shifted more than 50,000 jobs to India in over two years as the sub-continent has emerged as the most popular outsourcing destination abroad from Britain, the United States, and Ireland.

Four fifths of the world's 500 largest companies already outsource at least one function to India and the movement of jobs there and other countries like China has even become an issue for the U.S. presidential race.

Democrat candidate John Kerry branded executives who outsource jobs to low-cost countries as "Benedict Arnolds" (traitors) while Republicans rounded on a White House economic adviser for saying moving positions abroad was a plus for the economy in the long run.

UNIONS PREDICT JOB LOSSES

In Britain, trade union Amicus has predicted 200,000 call center jobs will be lost by 2008.

Mike Havard, managing director of CM Insight, the consultancy that led the study, said such fears of widespread job erosion were misplaced.

"For too long the UK call center industry has been dogged by conflicting forecasts about its future. This report at last gives us a clear view and confirms that the UK can not only compete but thrive," he said.

The report made a number of recommendations, however, which it said were vital for continued success. It said the government and industry should work together to improve perceptions of call centers in Britain, in the way that various other countries have done.

It also urged companies to consider all the implications before taking offshoring decisions, consulting customers, employees and trade unions.

British call centers should not compete with offshore locations on low costs but on quality, the report said. Many companies also do not consider other costs such as relocation of senior management, travel and customer dissatisfaction.

© Reuters