Telemarketers say the National Do Not Call Registry enacted last year has forced them to lay off workers and rethink strategies for reaching consumers.
"It's hard to know when the bleeding will stop," said Andrew Jacobs, president of Interactive Teleservices Corp., a privately held telemarketing firm in Dublin, Ohio.
MCI Inc. has been among the companies hardest hit by the new federal rules for telemarketers, which took effect in October.
The Ashburn, Va.-based long-distance firm laid off 4,000 telemarketers in March and blamed the job cuts on the do-not-call legislation. MCI closed telemarketing call centers in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio, and it cut employment at call centers in Georgia and Missouri.
"It's purely math. The number of households we can call is severely reduced," said MCI spokeswoman Brittany Hoff.
New Jersey-based DialAmerica Marketing, the nation's largest privately held telemarketer, laid off 162 workers in January at its Knoxville, Tenn., call center.
It is not clear how many jobs telemarketers have eliminated. The American Teleservices Association (ATA), which represents telemarketing firms, said last year the industry employs 6 million people and that the do-not-call legislation could result in the loss of 2.5 million jobs.
The ATA, which declined to comment for this story, is challenging the telemarketing rules. It argues the law violates the First Amendment by banning commercial free speech.
Despite the industry upheaval, the public has embraced the do-not-call list. Aggravated consumers rushed to add their numbers when the Federal Trade Commission opened the registry last summer, and 61.8 million phone numbers are on the list.
Rather than lay off workers, Mr. Jacobs, of Interactive Teleservices, said he is adding jobs overseas to cope with do-not-call legislation.
