Biggest Onshore, Nearshore & Offshore Call Center Site Selection Projects of 2018

The call center industry continued its growth trend with the creation of 145,847 jobs at 310 call center facilities across the world in 2018. These results are slightly lower than 2017 but still reinforce the fact that the call center industry is holding steady. With almost 50,000 of those jobs created in the U.S., domestic expansion and reshoring initiatives from nearshore and offshore regions have enabled the U.S. to maintain its robust job growth for the year.

Outside the U.S., India, the Philippines and Latin America continue to be the hottest regions for expansion during the site selection process. India created over 18,000 jobs, the Philippines announced more than 31,000, and Latin America created an estimated 25,000 jobs primarily driven by the high-growth business process outsourcing sector. 

Tight labor conditions in the U.S. may slow onshore growth

Unemployment rates are at historic lows in the U.S. which is creating a lot of challenges for call centers across the country. Employee attrition and wage rates are increasing as employers are fighting to attract and retain talent especially in the more saturated call center labor markets. One of the biggest problems faced by call centers is that they are the entry point into the white-collar work environment. They are pulling labor from retail, customer service and colleges which they, in turn, train on soft skills and lower-level computer skills. 

Once the employees are trained, you will often see them move up the chain to higher-level positions in corporate offices, shared service centers and light technical support. The end result is a lot of turnover and a constant need to find a workforce supply which is difficult to find when labor conditions are so tight. Therefore, it is more critical than ever to carefully analyze all call center location criteria including labor availability, labor cost, wage inflation, call center saturation, educational institutions, labor market longevity and workforce development initiatives.

The biggest onshore, nearshore and offshore project announcements of 2018

To help understand call center site selection trends, Site Selection Group has identified the largest onshore, nearshore and offshore call center project announcements of 2018 to illustrate the types of deals that are getting done across the globe. These new project announcements were identified through a filtering process based on jobs created, location and community impact. The following table identifies the top new sites and expansion projects announced in 2018: 

Top 20 Onshore Call Center Projects of 2018

Top 20 Nearshore Call Center Projects of 2018

Top 20 Offshore Call Center Projects of 2018