Call center employers say they could have a difficult time finding local bilingual workers who are needed to help fill the 300 new jobs announced Wednesday.

Lisa Freeman of Manpower said the company has been consistently forced to look outside of Madison and Delaware counties to find workers who speak both English and Spanish.

“We are having to outreach to more of the metro areas of Indy and so forth to bring these workers in,” Freeman said.

Eric Jones of Manpower said the company expects to hire between 10 and 15 bilingual workers for the call center.

Bilingual employees hired on at the Daleville call center will receive an extra $1 per hour for their language skills, but they likely won’t reside in Madison or Delaware counties.

“We have tried thus far to hire locally. We are not getting the results that we’re needing,” Freeman said.

Freeman said thousands of applicants and job searchers have passed through Manpower’s offices in Muncie so far this year. Only 30 to 50 of those workers were bilingual.

Speaking Spanish isn’t the only skill in high demand with employers, Freeman said. “It’s always increasing, the amount of requests on a candidate, not only in communication and language, but also technical skills and so forth.”