UK call-centre job growth to continue until 2008

The number of call-centre staff in the UK and Europe will continue to grow during the next four years despite the growing trend for offshoring to countries such as India, according to a new report from Datamonitor.

The number of call centres in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will increase by 50 per cent to 45,000 by 2008, employing some 2.1 million agents.

But there are wide variations across Europe, with the UK showing the slowest growth and upcoming parts of Eastern Europe predicted to grow the fastest.

The number of UK call centres will grow by a compound annual growth rate of just 2.7 per cent over the next four years, peaking in 2007 with 499,000 staff and then dropping to 497,000 in 2008.

"The UK will be one of the slowest growing markets due to its maturity," said Peter Ryan, technology analyst at Datamonitor. "Firms are looking at offshoring and outsourcing to a variety of different markets. The UK is one of the most mature so this is a natural development."

Eastern European countries are tipped to grow as 'nearshore' outsourcing alternatives. Poland is the fastest growing and will double the number of agents from 25,000 to 50,000 in 2008.

"These countries have invested hugely in technology infrastructure and providing languages in a big way, particularly Germanic," said Ryan. "Investing in Europe makes a lot of sense."

Across Europe, the fastest growing vertical sector is the public sector, with local authorities in the UK investing in call centres as part of their modernising government strategies. Financial services and manufacturing are the slowest, with a CAGR of 3 per cent.

The report, Vertical Guide to Call Centres in EMEA, highlights VoIP as a technology that is enabling larger numbers of smaller call centres that are located around a central hub.

Multi-channel delivery is also predicted to be the model of the future with call centres able to handle voice, web, SMS and fax.

"Multi-channel enablement is not being used to a large degree now in the UK. It will come on strong in the next few years," said Ryan.