Greyhound Lines, Inc., plans to close its call center in Tucson, Arizona in March and lay off 165 workers. For those closely watching the job market, both locally and throughout the country, this is not good news.

This call center opened its doors in 1997, but has experienced a slow down. Over the past five years, call volume has dropped by half, according to a company spokesman. This drop in volume can greatly increase the costs associated with the center, making it less of an asset and more of a liability for the company.

This sentiment was supported by Greyhound spokesman, Dustin Clark when he stated that continuing to do business in Tucson is cost-prohibitive. Clark did not elaborate on this point.

Agents within the Tucson call center fielded queries regarding bus fares, schedules and tickets. Upon the closing of this call center, these calls will be handled by two other Greyhound call centers located in Dallas and in Kingston, Jamaica. At its peak, the Tucson call center employed 450 people.

The upside for employees facing a layoff is that the region offers 40 other call centers from which to choose. This point was highlighted by Laura Shaw, a spokeswoman for Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc.

While such opportunities could appear to be promising, Tucson has experienced more than its share of closings in the past year. Sears cut 150 Tucson employees, AOL (News - Alert) laid off 80 workers and Infonxx closed its call center, resulting in the loss of roughly 400 jobs.

With this trend in call center job losses in the Tucson area, it may hurt the region’s ability to attract new clients for call center establishment. In addition, it could also impact the labor pool which may turn gun-shy towards call center jobs in the wake of so many cuts and closing.

On the upside, Geico and Afni each announced in 2007 that they would add 200 jobs at their local call centers. These announcements comes at an opportune time for the Tucson area, helping to offset the most recent losses, but not enough to cover those accumulated for the year.

For the Tucson area, the hope is likely that its economic benefits and its available labor pool will provide a strong incentive to attract new companies to the area. After all, it is always a good thing when call centers can be kept on U.S. soil to protect jobs and promote a better customer perception for the company.