BPO sector projected to create 11,000 new jobs annually, says Wehby as he stresses need to train workforce

The fast-growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is projected to create some 11,000 new jobs annually.

That's according to chairman of JAMPRO, Don Wehby, who said the industry has created employment for 32,500 persons as at September of this year.

“This industry is growing so fast that we have to ensure that we have the people that are properly trained to meet the demand, because we are projecting at JAMPRO, 11,000 new jobs a year in the BPO industry,” Wehby, who is also a government senator, told his colleagues during the State of the Nation debate on Friday in Parliament's Upper House.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has identified the BPO sector as one of the main source of economic growth for his administration.

Holness, in highlighting the significant investments being made to expand the BPO sector on the island, acknowledged that the availability of a trained workforce could limit the growth of the sector.

"My view is that it (growth numbers) could be 10 times that. But the sector has reached almost a frontier now, and it is the Government of Jamaica which has to increase its investment in the training of more people," the prime minister said at the official opening of KPMG's extended support services unit in Kingston last month.

"Some stakeholders in the BPO sector say that is their main complaint and that they are seeing in the very near future that the limit on growth could be the availability of staffing of their operations. So we are not taking that for granted," he added.

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