One out of every 15 call centre jobs in the United States will be outsourced by 2008, but employees need not fear losing their jobs, said Silicon.com, quoting independent market analyst Datamonitor.

"Currently, only one in 24 of all call centre agents that deal with US customers are offshored -- a figure which is set to shoot up in the next five years as cash-hungry execs try to trim budgets even further," said Silicon.com.

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The Datamonitor report 'The Vertical Guide to US Customer Relationship Outsourcing' said that despite the fact that labour costs can be cut by almost 75 per cent to 85 per cent by outsourcing, it was not necessarily a major threat to American jobs.

"While the market in the United States only grew around 2 per cent last year and some jobs have already been lost as a result of offshoring, the future for the domestic industry should be safeguarded by growth in other areas, including government and utilities," said Silicon.com.

"The outsourcing market, in contrast, will enjoy a boom -- with its total value rocketing from $19 billion to $24 billion in the next five years. Daniel Hong, CRM analyst at Datamonitor, believes that despite a degree of uncertainty over quality, more and more CEOs are turning to offshoring," said Silicon.com.

In the United Kingdom, financial services companies have been leading the way in outsourcing, with deals from major banks, including Abbey, Barclays, HSBC and LloydsTSB, choosing to outsource work, said Silicon.com.