Being able to speak at least one other language other than your own has suddenly become a very useful asset, as translation jobs have become one of the fastest growing career choices right around the world. The growth in the translation and interpreting industry in places as far apart as Australia and the USA is partly a result of huge shifts in the world’s population.
Whether for tourism, retirement, business or as a refuge from war and oppression, people are moving away from their original homes like never before. Go to any of the western world’s big cities and you will inevitably hear a babble of languages being spoken and translators are filling a gap so that everyone can make themselves understood.
While translation services in Australia are seeing an upsurge in the amount of translation needed, it is countries like the USA where the translation industry has been growing fastest. An industry led investigation reported a 36 percent increase in translation jobs in that country in the 5 years between 2014 and 2019. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of translation services jobs will grow by an astonishing 46% up to 2022. The only job type that is likely to exceed the translation industry’s record breaking spurt is that of the home health worker, with a predicted 48% increase over the same period. The latter is also due to this century’s characteristic demographics, that of an increasingly older population.
The growth in translation services is not just due to net immigration. It is also due to creeping globalisation as business after business realizes the benefits of global expansion and the power of the Internet to expedite marketing and sales overseas.
In the U.S., translators and interpreters can command good incomes, with the average translator taking home around US$46,000, although top of the range translators can take home salaries in the six figure range.
Becoming a translator or interpreter is not as easy as it sounds. It is not good enough simply to speak another language other than your own, even if you can do so fluently. Professional translators have taken time to learn their trade. Anyone can cook, but that doesn’t mean that anyone can apply for a chef’s job. Translation is to the average bilingual citizen as being a chef is to the home cook.
There is no indication that computer aided translation tools, like Google Translate is likely to put a dent in the number of translators and interpreters being given jobs as this is by its own admission an amateur service, best suited for Internet searches and holidays abroad when you have forgotten to pack the phrase book or dictionary.