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Call Centers
A Trip Through Cubicle Country
The trends in call centers.
Cadillac Cubicles
With about eight of every 100 workers employed at call centers, Jacksonville is no stranger to headsetwearers. But in June, Fidelity Investments drew attention after it announced a new call center. It wasn't just the number of jobs -- 400 by next June and 1,200 in four years -- or the $5 million in incentives that Gov. Jeb Bush pledged to recruit the company. What sets the Fidelity center apart is the education level required to work there -- a college degree and a license to sell securities are highly preferred -- and the pay: An average of $50,000 annually. "They are highly skilled, professional jobs," says Mike Shamrell, a Fidelity spokesman.
The upscale trend isn't universal. In Melbourne, MedSolutions recently opened a 132-employee call center. Most workers need only a high school diploma and will make in the low- to mid-$20,000s, with the 30 to 40 nurses earning more, says Jessica Riley, marketing director for the Franklin, Tenn.,-based company.
Going forward, the industry in Florida is likely to see a mix of more traditional low-end call-center jobs along with higher-wage posts like the Fidelity center. "It's a maturing of the industry," says John H. Boyd of The Boyd Co., a Princeton, N.J.- based site-selection consulting firm. "The skill sets are more demanding."
Fewer Disrupted Dinners
One industry segment not showing growth in Florida is telemarketing. While the public most identifies call centers with outbound sales operations, telemarketing makes up less than 15% of the overall callcenter market. The federal no-call list and public disgust over unsolicited calls have sapped telemarketing, and telemarketing employment in Florida fell nearly 9% to 32,400 from 2004 to 2005, according to the state Agency for Workforce Innovation. (The count, however, is inexact. Call-center employment numbers are difficult to track. For example, an inhouse call center for a financial services company likely would be counted under financial services rather than telemarketing.)
