Despite the increase in the use of machine translation, the human translation industry is still racing along and there is no indication it’s going to slow down.
- According to Common Sense Advisory, a think tank for the translation industry, the industry in 2012 was worth U.S. $33.5 billion and was on the rise
- IBISWorld stated that an increase in overseas expansion and globalisation will mean a 4.9% yearly growth rate in the global translation industry is forecast
- The 2014 Occupational Outlook Handbook published by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in 2015 the translation market will grow by 46% by 2020. This will mean a rise from around 60,000 job openings to 93,000
- Another fact is that translators are experiencing an increase in job vacancies in translation
- The rates for translators’ services are going up
- Online job boards are advertising for more language specialists
- The recent search using the words, either “interpreter” or “translator” on the job site Indeed.com yielded 788 jobs that had been posted in a single week. If the words “bilingual” or “linguist” were added this revealed 16,176 in the U.S. alone
- More funding than ever has been provided to new translation start-ups
It seems that pay will remain stable as clients recognise the need to get quality translations.
Things that Help Promote the Translation Industry are:
- Consistent hard-working translators
- The ability for translators to adapt and change as required
- Being able to alter translation practice when related to the introduction of new technology
- Overall the introduction of new translation technology has caused an increase in opportunities for translators not lowered it so this should be accepted and used accordingly
- A professional translator needs to develop their knowledge base so they know a little more than the basics when related to such things as business writing, web design, localization and image manipulation. This helps the client see how a translation will affect his image of the document translated
- Ability to provide more than a translation but have more knowledge about language issues as a whole
If you are part of the human translation industry yourself you haven’t got too much to worry about at least in the near future.
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