Jamaica BPO sector sheds roughly one-third of jobs after Melissa and rising costs

Jamaica's business process outsourcing (BPO) sector has shed roughly one-third of its workforce as firms wrestle with the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, a tighter labour market and climbing operational expenses.

Winston Sinclair, president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ), said the storm arrived when several companies were pushing expansion plans, leaving some operators to move work to other countries.

"When Hurricane Melissa hit, it hit at the worst possible time that it could have hit," Sinclair said. "Because it hit at a time when most companies would have been scaling up their Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. So, it really left a lot of companies scrambling. And so, some of them had to find other geographies to do their business."

At its peak, the industry employed between 60,000 and 65,000 people nationwide. Sinclair said employment has since dropped to about 40,000 — a reduction of roughly 33 per cent — with most of the decline occurring over the past year, stretching back from 2023–2024.

He also pointed to stiffer competition for workers and a higher cost of doing business, factors he said have eroded Jamaica's edge in the sector.

"The cost of doing business caused us to lose some of our competitiveness, quite frankly," he said. "The things that used to be of benefit to us before is something that isn't so much of a benefit now. Those three factors would be some of the reasons that persons would have seen some contraction in the sector."

Yoni Epstein, president-elect of the GSAJ, said he does not view the downturn as a permanent setback. He argued the sector must reposition itself to seize new openings, including the use of artificial intelligence in a fast-changing global market.

"We need to look at technological ways to advance the industry to grow the economy and how BPO plays a role in that," Epstein said. "I feel very positive that while using artificial intelligence is certainly going to provide a lot of efficiency, you may find it will lose jobs in one perspective, but at the same time, as you continue to grow, you're never going to lose the human element of things."

The worldwide BPO industry is valued at more than US$300 billion. Jamaica's segment generates approximately US$900 million in annual inflows.