A new report by bipartisan research group New American Economy indicates that there is a growing need for bilingual employees in the US workforce. In fact, demand for multilingual employees more than doubled over the last five years.
We asked New American Economy to dig into the number for the DC region. Here is their Report on the DC Region!
Demand for bilingual jobs in DC grew 148% over the last five years compared to only 98% for overall growth. Jobs requiring some degree of language skill, but not necessarily bilingualism, also grew much more than jobs overall.
Spanish is the most sought after language. In 2016 there were 10,744 job postings requiring Spanish, 2,244 postings requiring French, 1,771 postings requiring Arabic, and 1,032 postings requiring Chinese. Portuguese, Russian, Korean and German followed closely.
The DC Region’s top employers of bilinguals are the financial sector, hospitality, healthcare and government.
Occupations vary by language required, with the bulk of Spanish needs in consumer facing jobs, the bulk of French needs in managerial positions and the bulk of Arabic needs in translation and interpretation services.
