Contact centre announces 500 jobs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7061295.stm

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A Northern Ireland contact centre has said that it will be recruiting another 500 people over the next two months.

A number of the posts at Gem will be part-time, but the company said a proportion are likely to be converted to full-time posts.

The Belfast-based company is also opening an office in Hungary, employing initially about 80 people.

Managing director Philip Cassidy said revenues have increased by 40% this year.

He told Good Morning Ulster the work was coming from a variety of areas.

"Some of it is Play.com, which is one of our major contracts, some of it is Cisco, Expedia and Microsoft so we have a number of different clients out there that require additional capacity," he said.

He said they had also signed up McAfee, the internet security company, and a gaming company.

Mr Cassidy said that in the contact sector there seemed to be a move back to Europe from Indian contact centres.

"I think there will be a place for the Indian contact centre, but what has happened is that everything has gone out there, when there is a particular contact that suits that environment and the more complex type of transactions or contacts really suit the UK market and that's where we're able to grow," he said.