How many phone operator jobs are out there?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2012, there were fewer than 14,000 people specifically designated as “phone operators,” but that number expands once you include the hospitality industry, emergency dispatchers, and other support jobs that rely almost entirely on communicating by phone.

What skills do phone operators have?

Phone operators are essentially customer service personnel, and need to have a certain set of skills:

People skills

Communication skills

Customer service focus

Organizational skills

Problem-solving skills

Most companies will provide on-the-job training for its operators, but there’s no special training or educational program specifically for phone operators.

So should you consider becoming a phone operator?

If you have the skills and a strong sense of nostalgia, then why not? We haven’t become an entirely digital society yet, and sometimes an authoritative and knowledgeable human voice is absolutely as necessary as it ever was.

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