LITTLE ROCK — Several hundred people are being hired for a call center in Malvern for Tampa, Fla.-based Sykes Enterprises.
Nikki Cranford Launius, executive director of the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce, on Thursday said the center helps customers with AT&T wireless service.
“Some of them take the calls; some of them are in supervisory capacities; some of them might be trainers,” Launius said.
Company officials Thursday wouldn’t give a precise number of how many people would be hired. The chamber said earlier in the day that 500 positions would be filled.
Anthony Bloom, site director for the Malvern center, said hiring already is under way. A “significant amount”of people will be hired, resulting in about 600-700 people working at the center, he said.
Sykes will issue a news release with more details in the next few days, Bloom said.
The center, located in a former Wal-Mart store, has been open for about threeyears, Launius said.
Wages for most the jobs begin at $9 and can reach $13 an hour, Launius said. A few supervisors earn more.
Bloom declined to say exactly what the wages are, saying they’re subject to change.
The unemployment rate in Hot Spring County was 7.2 percent in September, versus 7.8 percent statewide. The numbers aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations.
Malvern has a population of about 10,000 people and is the seat of Hot Spring County, which has about 32,000 residents, Launius said.
She said the area has had a “stable” job market, and Malvern is known as the “brick capital of the world,” with Acme Brick as a key employer.
Call centers are considered part of Arkansas’ administrative and services sector, which grew to 57,600 in September from 55,400 a year earlier, according to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.
Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said call centers are “something that lots of communities have tried to recruit” because they want “the whole portfolio” of employers.
By that, she meant jobs are needed “for folks at every education and skill level ... and these often provide good jobs for folks who don’t have more specific training or higher levels of education.”
To apply, people can visitwww.sykes.com/careers and click on the U.S. flag and then Contact Center Services to find the Malvern link.
Sykes Enterprises also has locations in Fort Smith, Morrilton and Conway.
Subhaash Kumar, Sykes’ global vice president of finance and investor relations, declined to give employee counts for the other locations.
Sykes this month reported revenue of about $303 million for the third quarter, up 3 percent from a year earlier. Profit was $18 million, up from about $14 million.
Shares of Sykes on Thursday closed at $15.06 on the Nasdaq stock exchange, down 1.5 percent.
Business, Pages 27 on 11/18/2011