Growth & Jobs | BPO workforce on target to reach 75,000 by 2025
Published:Tuesday | August 23, 2022 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
HAVING proven its resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is on target to employing 75,000 persons by 2025.
Gloria Henry, vice-president of BPO and logistics at the Port Authority of Jamaica, said close to 20,000 new jobs were created in the BPO sector during the post-pandemic period, bringing the overall figure to approximately 57,000 among the 100 local and international companies operating within the sector on the island.
“Overall, the sector created 17,000 new jobs to record an overall growth of about 40 per cent and contributed over US$2 billion since the pandemic,” Henry disclosed while delivering the keynote address at the opening of Omni Nearshore BPO company at the Barnett Tech Park in St James on Friday.
“It is also very important to note that we have grown in higher-level segments of about 12 per cent, which is very important to reinforcing our future in this global services sector,” said the immediate past president of the Global Service Sector Association of Jamaica, which is the umbrella regulatory body of the BPO sector.
Henry argued that the BPO sector, in the post-pandemic period, has risen like a phoenix and “since then we have launched 13 new sites, Omni being one of them”.
Along with the continued and steady growth of the industry, the Port Authority vice-president announced that BPO centres of excellence have been established on the island, with operations taking place within the new Portmore Informatics Park, in Portmore, St Catherine.
“Resilience is not the word, what we do every day is resilience. We have developed this economic shock ability to future-proof our industry,” she boasted. “We are not complacent, but rather we are constantly watchful and remaining vigilant of any potential risk.”
Homer Davis, minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister (west), noted that the BPO sector is more than being call centre operations. He said it has evolved into knowledge services, which requires advanced levels of analytical and technical skills.
“The Government will continue to build infrastructural capacity to attract higher value-added global service sector investment on the island. We will continue to improve the supporting legislative framework, as we believe in the creation of a stable and fertile economic environment,” assured Davis.
He added that the global services sector is poised to attract even more investment as it provides a steady income for an increasing number of Jamaicans.
“Your investment in this city is additional evidence that Montego Bay remains a prime location for investment at all levels, and will allow our great city to remain as the fastest-growing city in the Caribbean,” said Davis of Omni Nearshore’s investment.
“I have every confidence that your stay in this great city will not only be successful, but will be profitable and sustainable,” the former mayor of Montego Bay declared.