The translation industry has grown in leaps in bounds over the last few years as the demand for translators has skyrocketed. These days, international businesses are looking for translators who can translate their business documents, ads and other materials into a new language for their target audience. This has increased the rate of translators employability. If you wish to become a professional translator in any language, learning more about translators employability should be at the back of your mind.
A growing trend
At the start of the new decades, the signs were there that translators employability will keep surging as businesses expanded to new regions, particularly in the ever exploding Asian market but this trend was curtailed by the pandemic. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 20 percent from 2019 to 2029, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. After the pandemic and as business began to reopen most of them made up for the lost time by recruiting even more translators and interpreters and their number continues to grow.
In countries like the US with so much linguistic diversity, it has become a must in certain regions for certain industries to communicate in different languages such as the education, Healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. As the need for quality language services continues to evolve, translators employability will continue to grow and will remain at the top of the list of professional jobs for the next decade or more.
Freelance vs translation agency
Learning more about translators employability will be incomplete without understanding the current profile of the industry. Every translator earning a living or the one who wishes to earn a living off professional translation work has to go through one of two routes. They either work as freelance translators or for a translation agency. Freelance translators are self-employed who work directly for clients in need of translation services.
They understand the job and provide clients and their businesses with all the required language resources to help their business scale on the international market. Then we have translation agencies that cater to a large clientele. These agencies have professional and experienced translators skilled in different niches. So rather than engage clients directly they do so through the agency they work with or for.
Whilst the freelance translator has to search for clients online using different methods including via freelance websites, the one who works with an agency does not have such a responsibility as the agency has them on a retainer.
The increase in the number of freelance platforms and agencies has improved the ratio of translators employability significantly.
Reasons why translation is a promising career
Median Salary: The median salary of translators has continued to increase because the demand for quality translation remains high but not enough service providers to fill the orders. If you decide to take up professional translation as a career you can be sure of making above minimum wage especially if you are good at the job. Achieving financial independence as a freelance translator or through a translation agency is possible.
Growth projections
The growth projections heading into the future have never been brighter. This remains one of the few professional jobs with positive projections for the next decade. As more Western businesses move east they need to communicate in the language of the indigenous population if they are to make headway. The only way to do this is to engage the services of professional linguists who understand the local lingua. This only shows that there will always be opportunities for translators to earn a living for years to come doing what they love.
Flexible hours/schedule
Another benefit of pursuing a career as a professional translator is the total control you will have over your work hours. It is in your power to determine your schedule; you decide when you want to be active or not which is great. This will give you ample time to pursue other economic or social interests which will only lead to a fulfilling life.
Diverse field
In case you didn’t know, the translation industry is quite diverse with many languages and content in play. You may choose to focus on a particular niche such as digital ads content, technical documents, marketing documents, medical review documents and more as the list is endless. You may also choose to master two or more languages to increase your translators employability. The more languages or services you can offer to clients the brighter your chances of landing better jobs.
Opportunities for self-growth
As a professional translator, there will always be opportunities for self-growth. As the industry continues to evolve and technology gradually makes inroads into the industry and some regional languages become relevant you will have opportunities to broaden your horizon even more. This poses an exciting challenge that many other careers cannot boast of.
Will technology pose a risk to translators?
This is one question many newbie translators worry about since they see how technology has overtaken other fields and is threatening to do the same to others. Robotics and online software applications have changed the way we create and interact. However, the possibility of software technology taking the place of professional translators is slim. But why so?
Simply because human language is dynamic and no application has been created that is intelligent enough to master communication on a human scale. The software cannot understand the nuances of human language, how much more understanding of cultural taboo as far as speech is concerned. Although we do know that technology will continue to change the world in so many ways, for now, its impact on human language and communication is still low compared to other industries. This means that translators employability is not at risk.
