The World’s Top Call-Center Nation Has a People Problem

Philippine industry group to create roadmap to boost skills
Half of outsourced jobs at risk from automation, study shows

Employees man the phones at a call centre in Manila, Philippines, 28 August, 2012.
Photographer: Julian Abram Wainwright/Bloomberg

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By Ditas B Lopez and Siegfrid Alegado

October 4, 2017 at 9:00 PM UTC

Updated on

October 5, 2017 at 2:20 AM UTC

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Since the early 2000s, the Philippines added more than a million jobs as foreign companies outsourced customer support and sales tasks to the Southeast Asian nation.

Now a looming wave of automation is threatening employment at call centers and forcing the industry to retrain workers to meet the demand for higher skilled jobs in areas such as healthcare, banking, finance and insurance.