More Local Business

• Mineral leases concern residents in eastern New Mexico
• PNM: Power Saver plan would reduce electricity use in peak demand cycle
• Air-bag waiver brings Tesla car plant one step closer to Albuquerque

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Albuquerque Old Town
• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

The online giant AOL announced this morning it is closing its Albuquerque call center, a move expected to result in the loss of more than 900 jobs by the end of December.

"It is difficult news," said Nicholas Graham, vice president of corporate communications in the company's Dulles, Va., headquarters.

The cuts are part of a restructuring plan AOL announced in August, in which the company said as many as 5,000 employees would be laid off within six months - a quarter of its global work force.

Albuquerque's call center at 6301 Jefferson St. N.E. employs more than 900 workers, Graham said. The company wouldn't disclose the typical salary paid in Albuquerque, only saying it was "on par with the industry."

Employees were told of the layoffs this morning, then given the day off. They will continue to work for AOL through Dec. 15, after which they will be offered a severance package that provides a combination of salary and benefits, Graham said. He did not disclose details of the package.

A few dozen AOL employees milled around outside the glass-fronted Albuquerque call center this morning, as did several security guards patrolling the parking lot. At least one employee said company officials asked them not to speak with reporters.

While the news is grim for the AOL employees, local economic development officials were already working to fill the gap.

Gary Tonjes, president of Albuquerque Economic Development, which works to recruit new businesses to the city, said he has already contacted several prospective companies with the details of AOL's departure, as well as the availability of its leased Jefferson Street office.

Tonjes declined to identify the companies interested in Albuquerque, but said "multiple" firms had the city on a short list of one or two possible cities to host jobs like technical support, customer service, accounting and other "back office operations."

Similarly, Fred Mondragon, the city's director of economic development, said an announcement is expected soon on a company coming to Albuquerque with about 200 similar jobs. He declined to identify the company.

Mondragon and Tonjes say they are confident the Albuquerque job market can absorb many, if not all, of the laid-off workers. Companies such as Lockheed Martin, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Gap and CitiCards have been hiring locally for similar jobs, they said.

In all, Mondragon said, about eight call centers are hiring.

That's not a replacement for AOL, Tonjes said, but it's a start.

"Is there an employer who steps into that facility who hires all 920 of these people? Not likely," Tonjes said. "But are there other employers who will also be coming to town? Are there existing employers, wherein there are several options for AOL's employees? Absolutely."

AOL has maintained a call center in Albuquerque for about a decade, Graham said. The Albuquerque facility was one of AOL's first customer call centers and remains its second-largest, falling just behind a call center in Oklahoma City that will remain open, Graham said.

In total, AOL announced 1,400 job cuts in the United States this morning. A call center in Tucson will also see about 400 job cuts, while a call center in Ogden, Utah, will be sold to another company, he said.

The reduction in customer service workers comes as AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., transitions away from charging customers for high-speed Internet, e-mail and other services and into an advertising-driven Web services company.

Customers who have been maintaining their AOL subscription just to keep their AOL.com e-mail address, for example, now receive that service online for free.

The Albuquerque call center employees worked with subscribers to answer questions on high-speed Internet connections, billing issues, registration to the service and other areas of technical support, Graham said.

But with the company moving away from its subscriber-driven service, the need for customer service workers has minimized, he said.

In August, Time Warner Inc., AOL's parent company, said it expected to spend $250 million to $350 million through 2007 to implement the changes, about half of that for employee severance.

The AOL cuts are the latest in a series of work force fluctuations in the Albuquerque area's call centers, which employ an estimated 12,500 people in the metro area.

Sento Corp., a customer support company in Utah, in August announced 65 job cuts after its Downtown call center lost a key client. The company, though, employs about 300 at the Compass Bank building and has said it still plans to expand to 800 workers in the next three years.

Verizon Wireless is in the midst of hiring as many 400 customer service call center workers by the end of the year to fill a new, $20 million facility at 7000 Central Ave. S.W. that at its peak will hold 1,400 workers.

Tonjes said AOL's departure means more than just job losses. The company was an advocate for Albuquerque as a home for corporate customer relations centers, he said.

"They (AOL) have helped us a great deal to attract other employers to the marketplace, not only in their presence, but in their participation to convince others that followed them that this was an excellent place where they could find talented workers," Tonjes said.

Graham emphasized that the departure from Albuquerque is strictly due to AOL's change in business model. It has nothing to do with the viability of the local market or other economic factors.

"I can't emphasize enough how pleased we have been with the business environment in the Albuquerque region that has provided us with a great pool of talent," Graham said. "This doesn't have anything to do with conditions in the state or the Albuquerque region. We believe other companies will find it a great place to do business."