Call centre agents are employed by:
- Insurance companies
- Telephone companies
- Power, water, and gas utility companies and contractors
- Retail companies
- Wholesale companies such as mail-order and internet-based companies
- Schools
- Government
- Other organizations with a strong customer-service orientation
A growing number of agents do their jobs remotely, such as from their own home. They may need to supply their own phone and computer. They also may need to pay the related cable, internet, and phone line costs.
Experienced operators may move into related positions in quality assurance or scheduling. They may advance to supervisory or training positions. Further advancement generally requires additional education.
Call centre agents are part of the larger 2011 National Occupational Classification 6552: Other customer and information services representatives. In Alberta, 78% of people employed in this classification work in the following industries:
The employment outlook [pdf] in this occupation will be influenced by a wide variety of factors including:
- trends and events affecting overall employment (especially in the industries listed above)
- location in Alberta
- employment turnover (work opportunities generated by people leaving existing positions)
- occupational growth (work opportunities resulting from the creation of new positions that never existed before)
- size of the occupation.
Over 12,800 Albertans are employed in the Customer service, information and related clerks occupational group. This group is expected to have an average annual growth of 1.7% from 2016 to 2020. As a result, 218 new positions are forecast to be created each year, in addition to job openings created by employment turnover. Note: As call centre agents form only a part of this larger occupational group, only some of these newly created positions will be for call centre agents.
Employment turnover is expected to increase as members of the baby boom generation retire over the next few years.
In Alberta, the 6552: Other customer and information services representatives occupational group is expected to have a below-average annual growth of 1.8% from 2019 to 2023. In addition to job openings created by employment turnover, 251 new positions are forecasted to be created within this occupational group each year.