One business outsourcing company has eliminated several Houston customer service jobs.
The Texas Workforce Commission recently reported that Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has laid off 181 employees from one of its Houston facilities. This is a surprising move, as the company recently added 120 positions in Houston when local clients began seeing more business.
According to reports from the Houston Chronicle and Houston Business Journal, officials at the company, which performs outsourcing services for other companies, said the job cuts were “due to lack of work.”
About 101 of the positions eliminated were in telemarketing, while the remaining 73 were in customer care. All workers who lost their jobs will be offered 60 days of severance pay and benefits, as well as outplacement assistance.
The facility hit during this round of layoffs, which has long served as the company’s customer service and sales operation for an unnamed client, is one of four that Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. operates in Houston.
The company currently employs about 1,300 workers in the Houston area and 34,000 customer service agents in 150 call centers throughout the world.
During September, Xerox announced its plan to acquire Affiliated Computer Services Inc., creating a $22 billion global corporation.
The job cuts will most likely have a negative impact on the Houston area’s already-declining professional and business services industry.
That industry employed 366,900 workers during November, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 367,100 workers during October and a 4.5 percent decrease from last year.
However, the area’s overall economy remains strong. During November, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area saw its unemployment rate decrease from 8.5 percent to 8.2 percent, which is lower than the national unemployment rate of 10 percent.
The area had a total non-farm employment of 2,534,900 workers during November, up from 2,525,600 workers during October, but a 3.4 percent decrease from last year.
[...] View original post here: Houston Customer Service Jobs Eliminated [...]