Call centre workers are becoming as cheap to hire in the US as they are in India, according to the head of the country’s largest business process outsourcing company.

据印度最大业务流程外包(BPO)公司Genpact的负责人称，美国的客服中心劳动力成本正变得与印度一样低廉。

High unemployment levels have driven down wages for some low-skilled outsourcing services in some parts of the US, particularly among the Hispanic population.

在美国部分地区，尤其是西班牙语人口聚集区，高失业率已压低了一些低技能外包服务的薪酬。

At the same time, wages in India’s outsourcing sector have risen by 10 per cent this year and senior outsourcing managers based in the country command salaries above global averages.

与此同时，今年印度外包行业的薪酬水平已提升10%，高级外包经理的开价在全球平均水平之上。

Pramod Bhasin, the chief executive of Genpact, said his company expected to treble its workforce in the US over the next two years, from about 1,500 employees now.

Genpact首席执行官帕拉蒙•哈辛(Pramod Bhasin)表示，公司预计在未来两年内，将美国员工人数从目前的约1500名增加两倍。

“We need to be very aware [of what’s available] as people [in the US] are open to working at home and working at lower salaries than they were used to,” said Mr Bhasin. “We can hire some seasoned executives with experience in the US for less money.”

“随着（美国）人开始接受在家工作，并接受比以前低的工资，我们必须非常清楚（哪些资源可用），”哈辛表示。“我们可以用更少的钱雇佣一些有美国背景的有经验的管理人员。”

The narrowing of the traditional cost advantage is also spurring other Indian outsourcers to hire more staff outside India.

传统成本优势的逐渐缩小，也刺激其它印度外包公司在印度以外地区雇佣更多的员工。

Wipro, the Bangalore-based IT outsourcing company, started to recruit workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the global economic downturn. Suresh Vaswani, joint chief executive of Wipro Technologies, forecasts that half of his company’s 110,000-strong workforce will be non-Indians in two years, from the current 39 per cent.

在全球经济低迷时期，总部位于班加罗尔的信息技术业外包公司威普罗(Wipro)开始在欧洲、中东地区和非洲招人。该公司联席首席执行官苏雷士•维斯瓦尼(Suresh Vaswani)预计，未来两年内，公司逾11万员工中，非印度人所占比例将从目前的39%升至一半。

India is still expected to retain the overall cost advantage, particularly in more sophisticated software outsourcing.

预计印度仍将保持总体成本优势，尤其是在更尖端的软件外包业。