Home-shoring is the term used to describe companies' appointing U.S. workers to answer technical support and customer-service calls directly from their home. The so called At-home workers handle hotel and airline reservations, roadside assistance, tech support and sales calls. Retirees and near-retirees will surely accept such work-at-home opportunities and get paid off.

The Hilton Hotels hired 900 work-at-home reservation agents. Most outsourcing companies like Alpine Access, Arise Virtual Solutions and LiveOps, hire agents who can deal with various types of call-center job for their clientele.  More at-home agents in January 2009 are expected to be employed by Hilton while Alpine Access is in need of 250 more agents this year, and another 1,200 in the first quarter of 2009. The demand for workers is due to the increase of wages and other costs in other countries, and communication difficulties.

The work of an agent requires experience and flexibility at work is an advantage. Schedules should set ahead of time usually a week in advance; most of the jobs are part time and salary range is from $8 to $14 per hour. Benefits are not given by the outsourcing companies. The job requires equipment (computer, high-speed Internet access and a dedicated phone line), and a quiet workplace.

Arise Virtual Solutions, based in Miramar, Fla., requires agents to pay an incorporation fee.  The charge is about $100, but it can be higher. An applicant should pay $99 for an 18-hour online training course. 98% of applicants pass the course, those who don't forfeit the fee. Arise agents must also undergo training which costs $25 to $200, depending on the difficulty of the training. [via]