Hiring activity in the global language market continued its upward trend in August 2022. After a 1.7 point dip in June interrupted a steady increase from January 2022, the Slator Language Industry Job Index (LIJI) has regained its momentum and hit an all-time high.
Given the macroeconomic environment, as a result of inflation and geopolitical tensions, this upward trajectory might surprise some, but the LIJI again shows how the language industry remains resilient.
The Slator LIJI climbed by approximately 2.8 points to 182.92 in August 2022, up from 180.11 the month prior. The index now stands at an all-time high of 182.92, surpassing previous peaks of 180.53 in December 2021 and 139.41 in May 2021.
The job index has climbed a total of 10 points in 2022 year to date, and 82 points since its launch three years ago in July 2018.
The LIJI was developed to track employment and hiring trends in the global language industry. The July 2018 baseline is the starting point from which expansion or contraction of employment and hiring activity across the industry is measured.
The uptick in the August 2022 index is linked to an increase in job ads across most of the platforms monitored by Slator. Observational data related to activity across the language industry in July 2022 indicate that the translation, localization, and interpreting hiring environment remains buoyant throughout the second quarter of 2022.
M&A, Funding, Financials
In July, Slator covered news of three M&A transactions, compared to the two transactions covered in June. White Knight Capital Management kicked off the month by announcing its acquisition of Latin American language service provider (LSP) Stillman Translations.
Over in Europe, STAR7 announced the acquisition of fellow Italy-based LSP Vertere for a purchase price of EUR 0.84m (USD 0.85m). Meanwhile in France, Word Class has acquired 100% of fellow French translation agency, Fastnet Translation.
In the month’s only funding story, UK-based speech-to-text company Speechmatics announced it had raised USD 62m in Series B funding.
Also in July, publicly-listed media localization provider, Zoo Digital, released its final set of results for the financial year ended March 31, 2022. The company reported revenues of USD 70.4m, up 78% from the previous year.
Slator 2022 Language Industry Market Report
Over at LocJobs, more than 5 companies were hiring and there were 6 new job postings in the month of July. Companies such as NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, Global Wordsmiths, International Achievers Group, and t'works posted their vacancies for roles spanning language services, vendor management, project management, and engineering.
The Slator LIJI relies on LinkedIn for part of its underlying data. The social media site has some 500 million users, many of whom share data about their skills, experience, location, company, and job titles on their personal LinkedIn pages. There are over 600,000 profiles under the Translation and Localization category and a search using the keyword Localization also yields more than 600,000 profiles.
In addition to using data from LinkedIn, the Slator LIJI also culls data from a range of sources, including global job aggregation sites and additional direct company data collected from Slator LSPI companies.
Your information will not be shared with third parties. No Spam.