Register.com lays off staff

Domain name registrar Register.com has reduced its work force in New York as it moves its customer service division to Nova Scotia. Register.com said it laid off 19 full-time customer service staff members and seven temporary employees in its New York office. The company now has 31 full-time and five temporary workers in New York; companywide, Register.com employs 163 customer service representatives and 350 people overall.

Register.com, which handles domain name registrations, announced in April that it would open a new customer service center in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Shonna Keogan, a spokeswoman for Register.com, said that the company "laid off employees in New York, where there was duplication in their job functions." Despite the layoffs, she said, Register.com's customer service staff has actually grown since the beginning of the year. Keogan added that the employees who were laid off received severance packages.