Call centre workforce exploding

Telephone call centres have proliferated in recent years, as people feeling harassed by dinnertime solicitations to sign up for long-distance plans or donate to charitable causes can readily attest.

But the effect has not been all negative, said a Statistics Canada study released Wednesday.

For instance, the technology that has allowed call centre jobs to be exported to places as far away as India, has also benefited Canadian regions traditionally suffering from underemployment.

StatsCan found that regions with high unemployment have benefited from the industry's growth.

About one-quarter of all employment in the industry was in Atlantic Canada, notably Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the study said.

This compared with the region's seven per cent share of total employment in both the service industries as a whole and in all industries combined.

Growth 'unparalleled'

The report's main finding is that Canadian business support services registered "unparalleled growth" between 1987 and 2004, driven by the adoption of new information and telecommunications technologies during the past two decades.

Business support services workers, who mostly work in call centres, numbered 112,000 in 2004, up from 20,000 in 1987, according to the report, entitled, "Who's calling at dinner time?"

The sub-sector's growth rate of 447 per cent well outstripped that of the service sector (37 per cent) and the overall rise in employment in Canada (29 per cent), over the period studied.

Moreover, the industry contained more women (60 per cent) than both the service sector (55 per cent) and Canada's workforce as a whole (47 per cent.). Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were twice as prevalent in business support services than in other service industries and the national workforce overall.

Lower pay, shorter stay

Wages in the industry were also lower than in comparable service industries, contributing to above-average turnover. In 2004, the average pay was $12.45 an hour, compared with the service sector average of $18.10, and the overall average of $18.50, the study found.

Some 85 per cent of workers left their jobs after five years or less, compared with 55 per cent for all service industries and 53 per cent for all industries combined.