Mixed Picture on Call Center Outsourcing

There are an estimated 60,000 people in the US doing call center work from home, NPR Reports. That number, points out Marty Lariviere in The Operations Room, is not up much from a few years ago, however, even though it is getting more expensive to operate in India ("US matches Indian outsourcing costs" - Financial Times). So the story here is that Americans are obviously willing to do call center work at home in this economy, as the cost of outsourcing to India moves upward and wages for American homeworkers are more competitive. But there is no overall gain in this sector, with US-based companies cutting expenses overall.