PH call center industry sees 'faster growth' in 2021

CALL CENTER BOOM. This photo shows the Cebu IT Park, the call center hub of Cebu. The Contact Center Association of the Philippines has projected the contact center industry in the country to outpace global growth in terms of workforce and revenue this year. / cebuholdings.com
CALL CENTER BOOM. This photo shows the Cebu IT Park, the call center hub of Cebu. The Contact Center Association of the Philippines has projected the contact center industry in the country to outpace global growth in terms of workforce and revenue this year. / cebuholdings.com

THE growth of the country’s contact center sector is expected to outpace global growth in 2021, according to the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).

For the year, the volume of full-time employees (FTEs) of contact centers in the Philippines is forecasted to grow by about eight to nine percent, compared to about six to seven percent growth globally.

In terms of revenue, the country’s contact centers are projected to rise by nine percent versus about six percent to seven percent worldwide.

Meanwhile, the information technology-business process management growth locally and globally are expected at seven to eight percent in terms of the volume of FTEs and eight percent in terms of revenue.

“The story of our industry was a really tough 2020 for many of us, still tough in 2021. But the market is rebounding. The Philippines is rebounding together with the market but because we are highly differentiated, no other country could do contact center better than the Philippines. We are enjoying faster growth than the global market and fueling our business growth is the creation of jobs,” said CCAP chairman Benedict Hernandez during the opening of the five-day virtual Contact Islands 2021 conference, Monday night, Sept. 27, 2021.

CCAP is composed of 130-member companies that represent about 70 to 80 percent in the industry. In a survey, 42 percent of the companies which represent about 300,000 employees are forecasting double-digit growth this year, which Hernandez described as “quite phenomenal.”

At the onset of the pandemic, the contact center industry was tagged as an essential industry that enabled companies to continue working while observing proper health protocols.

This allowed the industry to achieve an export revenue of $26.7 billion in 2020 and hired 23,000 new employees last year with a total FTEs of 1.32 million.

In terms of multiplier effect, the growth of the sector resulted in 4.3 million in direct employment. It also brought employment opportunities in the countryside with more than 350,000 or 27 percent of the total industry workforce employed outside Metro Manila.

“We really are in a unique position because of our size, skill and our ability to grow and help the country in its national recovery from this devastating impact of the pandemic,” he said. “We are uniquely positioned to actually take the lead in helping this country recover, create more jobs and help our partner sectors.”

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