Almost 1,600 people to be hired in services centres in Cluj this year

Cluj has lately become one of the most competitive centres for services outsourcing, ranking at the same time among the world’s 30 major locations on this market, according to a survey KPMG published last year. Strictly speaking of BPO services, around 500 people are currently operating on this market in Cluj, but if we were to also include call-centre operations, the figure goes beyond 1,000 persons, so that the total number of employees ranges between 1,500 and 2,000 people. In recent months, three major companies (Sykes, Genpact Romania and ING Asigurari) have announced they would open services centres in Cluj-Napoca, with criteria for choosing this city including the high education level, language skills, as well as the lower costs compared with centres in Central and Western Europe. US provider of management solutions and BPO services Sykes is set to hire 300 people by September in the office it opened in Cluj this year. Genpact Romania wants to hire between 500 and 1,000 people by yearend after having recently opened a new centre in Cluj. ING Asigurari also rented a 4,000-sqm space in Amera Tower in Cluj-Napoca and plans to hire 300 people this year.