Any time that a company announces they are hiring 150 new employees, it’s good news to job seekers, even if those positions are only temporary. Thanks to APAC Customer Services, Inc., 150 families in Sarasota may find the burden of holiday expenses eased this year.
Michael Pollick, of the Herald-Tribune, notes that the company presently only has 300 employees on its payroll, so this temporary expansion in call center jobs will increase its workforce by 50 percent. The reason, the company says, is that they are preparing to handle the needs of a client that prepares income tax returns and advertises their services “heavily.”
The new positions will range in pay from $9.50 per hour up to $15 per hour, and the company is looking for English-speaking representatives, as well as bilingual, Spanish-speaking representatives. While the jobs are being advertised as temporary, company officials seem hopeful that the jobs will turn into permanent positions, and, perhaps, they may even turn into more jobs.
In a recent statement, the office’s general manager, Cristin Cain, said, “We expect this is the first of several upcoming employment opportunities with APA Customer Services, due to our recently increased capacity in Sarasota. We are extremely proud to do business here and look forward to our expanded presence.” Crain told Pollick that APAC hopes to convert the temporary hires into full-time employees when they “secure other clients.” She went on to note that, while the building currently has the capacity for 525 workers, they are hopeful that a city permit will soon change that capacity to 620—far more space than they need to handle the 300 workers they currently employ full-time.
Whether or not the jobs do, indeed, turn out to be permanent, as the company seems to hope that they will, new jobs of any kind are always a good thing for a community. Florida has recently come under scrutiny for the competitive nature with which it has been trying to “woo” businesses, as detailed by Michael Guta.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson