Intuit lays off 80 workers at Tucson, Ariz., call center

March 06, 2006

Intuit lays off 80 workers at Tucson, Ariz., call center

(Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 4--Intuit Inc. laid off 80 workers at its Tucson call center Tuesday, but rumors of more layoffs due to outsourcing are false, a spokeswoman said Friday.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has no further restructuring plans for its Tucson call center at 2800 E. Commerce Center Place beyond Tuesday's layoffs, which affected less than 7 percent of the Tucson workforce, said Intuit spokesman Yvonne Thomson.

Layoffs were made because of a decrease in call volume, Thomson said.

"Nothing that happened there had anything to do with outsourcing decisions," she said.

Intuit reported it employed 1,420 Tucson workers at the end of 2005, but the number of workers fluctuates seasonally and currently stands at about 1,200, Thomson said.

The workers who were laid off had been doing telephone sales and technical support for the company's QuickBooks accounting software, she said.

The company will provide severance pay and outplacement services to laid-off workers, who should not have too much trouble finding work in Tucson, Thomson said.

"There are quite a few call centers down there, and we have outplacement counselors working with anyone who wants buttistance," she said.

Sears Customer Care Center announced in January that it planned to add 400 more workers in the next months to the 600 people it already employed at its call center at 4755 S. Butterfield Drive.

APAC Customer Services Inc. is currently running television advertisements seeking workers for its call center at 1650 S. Research Loop.

The company, which currently has about 700 employees, wants to hire about 800 more by June 1, said Venus Gonzales, human-resources administrator.