Call centres are moving abroad where labour costs are lower

Lloyds TSB is closing its call centre in Newcastle and transferring the 1,000 jobs to India, while other companies are also considering the move.

But Managing Director of Amicus Outsourcing Geoff Thompson said the new threat is from South Africa.

He said: "Like India, South Africa has number of advantages over other economies.

"It is an English-speaking nation, it has a low-cost labour economy and the South African Government has stated explicitly that they are keen to secure call centre jobs and have even set targets for that."

His comments comes as call centres in Sunderland are recruiting more than 400 new workers at an employment fair in the city.

Reduce costs

The industry is estimated to be worth �120m a year in wages to Sunderland's economy.

Mr Thompson said: "There are tactical call centre opportunities and I am not saying there will be no opportunities for call centres, but the overall trend with the larger, corporate clients is that they are moving offshore."

He said the industry needed to explore how technology could help reduce costs.

"We shouldn't stick our head in sand and assume the problem is going to go away.

"We need to be innovative, look at new ways of working, how we can improve efficiency and reduce costs."