Sterling Sykes To Cut 100 Jobs By May

Sykes Enterprises Inc., a global outsourcing firm, has informed officials at it's Sterling branch that it plans to cut about 100 area jobs by May 8. According to Richard O'Connell, executive director of the Logan County Economic Development Corp., Sykes, based in Tampa, Fla., lost an unspecified contract handled by customer-service workers in Sterling. Andrea Burnette, Director of Corporate Communications at Sykes, said the cuts appear to mostly affect customer-service positions. Burnette added that Sykes is still striving to bring more business to it's Sterling office. With 320 employees, Sykes ranks as the county's third-largest private-sector employer after the Sterling Regional MedCenter and Wal-Mart. It will still rank third even after the cuts. Logan County's unemployment rate, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, was at about 6.1% in January. Losing another 100 jobs could push it closer to 7%. According to their website, Sykes has more than 51,000 workers operating in 24 different countries.