14,000 More Jobs Expected In Local Outsourcing Industry

Jamaica’s Global Services Sector (GSS) is projecting 14,000 additional jobs in the local outsourcing industry by March 2020.

Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) Marketing Specialist, Cheryl Neufville-Crooks, made the projection while addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the agency’s Regional Office in Montego Bay, St. James, on Monday, November 18.

Mrs. Neufville-Crooks, who is tasked with the responsibility to rebrand the country’s GSS, outlined that more than 36,000 Jamaicans are currently employed in the sector.

She said Jamaicans, and the country’s economy by extension, are now poised to reap even more benefits through the creation of these additional jobs.

“So, we are looking at 50,000 [jobs] by next March,” Mrs. Neufville-Crooks pointed out.

She noted that in a major push towards this objective, the BPIAJ, in partnership with Compete Caribbean and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will, on Tuesday (November 19), offer 10 small operations in the local outsourcing industry the opportunity to benefit from the US$480,000 Global Services Sector – Moving Firms up the Value Chain Project.

The event will be held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston starting at 3:00 p.m.

“They are going to be helping 10 small companies to digitise their processes, so that they can employ up the value chain or scale up,” Mrs. Neufville-Crooks said.

“They (the companies) have already been selected [and] it’s a grant to be given to each of them,” she added.

It is anticipated that further GSS expansion in Jamaica will reposition the country to capture a greater percentage of the global market and bolster the island’s engagement in the fourth industrial revolution as well as attract new GSS investments.

The GSS comprises business process outsourcing (BPO) activities as well as information and communications technology (ICT), legal process outsourcing (LPO), Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) and more.

It is anticipated that further GSS expansion in Jamaica will reposition the country to capture a greater percentage of the global market.