Call Center Statistics 2026: Costs, Wait Times, Jobs & AI
An inbound call costs a US contact center $7.20 on average, 47% more than an email, and callers now wait 74 seconds for an answer, a third longer than before the pandemic. The average call center resolves 71% of issues on the first call. There are 2.67 million customer service representatives in the US, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that number to shrink 5% over the next decade as more of the work is automated, yet 87% of customers say a way to reach a human is essential when companies use AI. The most repeated workforce number in the industry, “30 to 45% annual agent turnover,” dates to around 2015 and is credited to a study nobody links to. Here are the call center statistics worth knowing in 2026, each sourced inline with the year noted.
A phone call costs $7.20, and callers wait 74 seconds
The average inbound call costs $7.20, 47% more than an email and 23% more than a web chat, from ContactBabel’s surveys of 207 US organizations and more than 1,000 US consumers (ContactBabel US Contact Center Decision-Makers’ Guide, 2026).
Average speed to answer is 74 seconds, a third higher than before the pandemic (ContactBabel, 2026).
25% of callers have already tried to solve their issue online and failed (ContactBabel, 2026). The call is often the second attempt.
US contact centers spend $12.3 billion a year checking callers’ security details manually (ContactBabel, 2026).
18% of web chats are now handled without a human agent, up from 6% in 2020, and 68% of contact centers rank AI among their top five investment priorities (ContactBabel, 2026).
The average call center resolves 71% of issues on the first call
The call center industry’s average first call resolution rate is 71%, and 70% to 79% counts as good, by SQM Group’s benchmark from post-call surveys and automated quality evaluation (SQM Group, 2026).
Retail has the highest average first call resolution, at 77%, followed by insurance (75%) and not-for-profit (73%) (SQM Group, 2026).
Telecom has the lowest, at 56%, followed by tech support at 64%, reflecting more complex problems (SQM Group, 2026). Within industries the spread is wide: health insurance call centers range from 51% to 91%.
“30 to 45% agent turnover” is a decade-old number
“Call center turnover is 30 to 45% a year” is a widely repeated figure on agent attrition, usually credited to the Quality Assurance & Training Connection (QATC). Phone software company Dialpad, which repeats it on its blog, notes that it is “from 2015” (Dialpad, 2024).
We could not find the QATC study itself, or a sample size or method in any of the pages that cite it. Treat it as an old industry estimate rather than a current benchmark.
2.67 million customer service jobs, shrinking slowly
2,666,000 people worked as customer service representatives in the US in 2025, at a median pay of $44,770 a year, or $21.53 an hour (Bureau of Labor Statistics, archived, 2026).
Employment is projected to fall 5% from 2025 to 2035, a loss of 141,800 jobs, with less demand “especially in retail trade, as their tasks continue to be automated” (BLS, 2026).
About 289,500 openings are still projected every year, all of them from replacing people who move to other jobs or leave the workforce (BLS, 2026).
Service leaders are funding AI out of flat budgets
AI spending by customer service leaders rose 38% while overall service budgets grew just 2%, in a Gartner survey of 199 service and support leaders in April and May 2026 (Gartner, 2026). Gartner says leaders are redirecting spending away from labor and overhead to pay for it.
Live chat and phone are still the most valuable service channels today, those leaders said, but they expect GenAI chatbots to take first place within two years, followed by live chat and GenAI voicebots (Gartner, 2026).
Service and support leaders put a median 12% of their 2025 budgets into AI, the most of any of 10 business functions, but only 24% could show positive financial returns (Gartner, 2026).
Gartner predicts that by 2029, agentic AI will resolve 80% of common customer service issues without a human, cutting operational costs 30% (Gartner, 2025). It is a forecast, not a measurement. Broader service data is in customer service statistics.
Customers use outside AI, and want a human on call
Customers are about three times more likely to use third-party GenAI tools than a company’s own chatbot to resolve a service issue, in a Gartner survey of 3,566 B2B and B2C customers in February and March 2026 (Gartner, 2026). Use of third-party GenAI for service nearly doubled in a year, while use of company chatbots has been statistically unchanged since 2022.
58% of customers who use GenAI have used it to complete a task on their behalf, rising to 74% in B2B (Gartner, 2026). Customers increasingly expect AI to take actions such as booking an appointment or updating an account, not only answer questions.
50% of customers say interactions are easier when companies use GenAI, but 87% say an option to reach a human agent is essential (Gartner, 2026). Among customers unwilling to use AI, the most common thing that would change their mind is the ability to switch to a person. What happens when no one picks up is in missed call statistics.
Answering every call without adding a shift
A call costs more than any other channel, the caller has often already failed online, and nearly nine in ten customers want a human reachable. Carly for teams answers your business line around the clock or only after hours, answers callers’ questions, books appointments on the right teammate’s calendar, texts the confirmation from your business number and hands the caller to a person when they ask, with the transcript and summary logged to your team inbox and CRM. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so it knows the caller from the tools you already use. The Carly team sets up your number with you on a short call.
To compare options first, see what an AI receptionist does and AI answering services.
FAQ
How much does a call center call cost? The average inbound call costs a US contact center $7.20, 47% more than an email and 23% more than a web chat (ContactBabel, 2026).
What is a good first call resolution rate? The industry average is 71%, and 70% to 79% is considered good. Retail averages 77% and telecom 56% (SQM Group, 2026).
What is the average call center turnover rate? The commonly quoted 30% to 45% is credited to the Quality Assurance & Training Connection and dates to around 2015 (Dialpad, 2024). We could not find the original study.
Will AI replace call center agents? The BLS projects customer service jobs to fall 5% from 2025 to 2035 as tasks are automated, and Gartner forecasts AI will resolve 80% of common issues by 2029. But 87% of customers say access to a human is essential when companies use AI (Gartner, 2026).
Related: Customer Service Statistics · Missed Call Statistics · Chatbot Statistics · Customer Experience Statistics · Speed to Lead Statistics · Customer Retention Statistics
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
