CenturyLink plans to add 40 jobs at its Jefferson City call center in July as part of its plan to add 100 jobs at the office by the end of the year.
CenturyLink currently employs 100 people at the call center at 2111 Missouri Blvd. With the expansion, the call center will have approximately 200 employees. The center receives calls mostly from customers in western states like Nevada and Colorado but also takes many of CenturyLink's calls from Ft. Myers, Florida. Employees answer questions from customers about billing and other topics, but the company also has sales positions at the call center.
CenturyLink Sales & Customer Care Supervisor Todd Large said 40 of the new positions will start in July. Large said the company just started conducting interviews to fill the openings; college experience is great, but not needed, and sales experience is a big plus, he said.
"We have people who were real estate or mortgage brokers teachers, restaurant workers," Large said. "So it's a really diverse background."
Salaries for the new positions start at $24,600, or $12 per hour, he said, and employees can make up to another $10,000 per year through commissions.
"For the type of experience that you would need, the type of compensation package is pretty aggressive," Large said.
Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce President Randy Allen said it's great CenturyLink is expanding here, but he noted some concern with job expansions offering only $24,000 per year - he believes jobs, especially in manufacturing, that offer closer to $30,000-$35,500 would be better.
"That $30,000-$35,000 rate with benefits, that makes me think the right fit with manufacturing," Allen said. "That's a good fit for the area."
He did think it was important jobs with wages of $24,000-$35,000 be available for people in the area without college education.
In 2015, the last year for which data was available, Jefferson City had a median income of $39,665 and a per capita income of $21,057, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Approximately 11,000 people, 11.2 percent of Jefferson City's labor force, had customer service jobs in 2015, according to a 2016 Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce study.
CenturyLink also has call centers in Kansas City, Lebanon, Branson and Chesterfield. The company announced plans to lay off 3,500 people nationwide in September, but the Jefferson City call center was not affected by the layoffs.
A CenturyLink spokeswoman said in a statement the company plans to add 100 employees to the Jefferson City office by the end of the year. Large said new employees will work in the basement of the company's three-level office. Another 80-100 desks are available on the top level. CenturyLink also likes the area's inexpensive real estate, compared to other areas where it has call centers, Large said.
"We have plenty of room for expansion," Large said. "That's one of the real reasons this location is being chosen for expansion."