25 Largest Call Center Employers in the United States

The U.S. call center market is estimated to employ over 3.3 million call center workers based on research conducted by Site Selection Group in last month’s blog. To take the analysis one step further, Site Selection Group has identified the largest call center employers in the U.S. to help you develop more effective site selection strategies for your next expansion.

U.S. call center industry employs about 3.3. million employees

The U.S. call center market continues to expand due to corporate reshoring, onshoring initiatives, and the quest for quality customer service. According to Site Selection Group's proprietary data, there are over 7,400 call centers in the U.S. employing 50 or more workers. These call centers employ an estimated 2.3 million workers. When you include smaller call centers that are often embedded within a company’s headquarters facilities and work-at-home call center employees, there is an additional 1 million estimated workers for a total call center workforce in the U.S. of approximately 3.3 million to 3.4 million workers.

Call center site selection strategies become more important than ever

As the U.S. call center market has matured over the last two decades, the utilization of site selection strategies has become more important than ever. Both large and small companies are implementing in-depth site selection studies to navigate the challenging labor markets across the U.S. These companies are utilizing site selection best practices that evaluate current and future labor conditions in an effort to tap into the best labor markets. These studies include the evaluation of labor availability, labor market longevity and scalability, college graduate output, military presence, labor cost, wage inflation, labor laws, tax conditions, quality of life, accessibility, real estate cost and availability, and economic incentive availability.

Identifying the largest call center employers in the U.S.

Based on Site Selection Group’s proprietary database of call centers operating across the U.S., we identified the largest call center employers.  The following table identifies the 25 largest call center employers:  

25 Largest Call Center Employers in the U.S.

The largest employers span various industries and organization types

The largest employers primarily include companies in business process outsourcing, telecommunications, financial services, and healthcare. Companies like Alorica, the largest business process outsourcer on the list, have recently grown through multiple mergers. Other mega business process outsourcers include Conduent, Convergys, Teleperformance, Teletech, Sykes, and Sitel. While leading telecommunication companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Spectrum are also major employers. Similarly, there are healthcare affiliate companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield employing an estimated 40,000 employees as well as more traditional healthcare insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, and Aetna. Financial services is another massive employer-led by companies such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase. 

Conclusions

The call center industry in the U.S. is clearly well diversified which has led to its stability as a niche employer within labor markets across the U.S. These employers often are the employer of choice and can make it difficult to staff and retain quality talent. As a result, it is critical to utilize a proven site selection process to navigate the labor markets in your efforts to find the optimal call center location for your company.