Morocco’s Call Centers: Job Lifeline for Underemployed Graduates

"I tried to find a job as a Spanish teacher, but there are no job opportunities in this specialty," explains Oussama, a young Moroccan who works in a call center in Casablanca, to elperiodico.com. He started this job while still a university student in languages and communication and is still there, ten years after finishing his university studies, for lack of finding a job.

"Most of my classmates work in call centers. In Morocco, there is no professional future," laments Oussama. Like him, many young students work in a call center to make ends meet during their studies. The hourly wage in these spaces can range from 20 to 30 dirhams (two to three euros). In recent years, the number of call centers has increased considerably in Morocco. There are more than fifty of them in Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier. Several companies such as Easyjet, Vodafone, Orange, Amazon and Samsung among others, have outsourced their customer service and sales to Morocco to reduce costs.

Essam, 26, was luckier. After several months of work in a call center, he managed to land a job. Since the end of the summer, he has been a translator-interpreter in a high school in Cadiz. "I worked in three call centers: in Casablanca, Tangier and Rabat. I looked for a job. In vain," he says. He recounts the constant stress of this work. "In the Tangier center, there are so many calls that you can’t stop for a minute. You feel very tired and stressed... especially when you can’t reach your goals," he remembers.

According to figures from the High Commission for Planning, nearly one in four Moroccans who have finished their studies is unemployed. For Zoubeidi, a doctor specializing in migration and mobility, "this reality has existed for about ten years." "There is a mismatch between the education system and the labor market, so the simplest and most accessible option for young graduates is to work in call centers," explains the expert. And to add: "It is very hard for graduates, because it is a systematic job that does not allow them to develop their professional career."