When speaking a second language becomes an advantage
The number of peoplewho want to leave their home country is not really falling. In fact, according to the newspapers Spiegel and Focus, the United Kingdom is the fourth most popular country for people to emigrate. Only the USA, Switzerland and Austria trump Great Britain in popularity.
It should be noted that although Brexit will take place, London and, in principle, the whole of the UK cannot do without foreign workers. The United Kingdom is already aware of this. In her speech in Florence last year, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the following:
“ I want to repeat to the 600,000 Italians in the U.K. – and indeed to all EU citizens who have made their lives in our country – that we want you to stay; we value you; and we thank you for your contribution to our national life – and it has been, and remains, one of my first goals in this negotiation to ensure that you can carry on living your lives as before ”.
The strong demand for foreign labor is also reflected by internet sites used for job search. For example, the agency “Eures” in Great Britain is looking for staff with a mother tongue other than English for more than 30,000 vacancies. The big job machine “Monster” offers more than 1,000 job offers to individuals with a foreign mother tongue in London alone. “Adzuna”, one of the leading providers of job portals, examined thousands of different job offers. Their research showed that in London the demand for workers who can speak a second language is growing steadily. In addition, “Adzuna” found out that companies are willing to pay a higher salary to those individuals who speak a second language in addition to English.
However, which languages are most sought after in the UK? Here are the 5 most requested languages according to “Adzuna” (ranked according to the number of job advertisements and the average salary to be expected):
1. French
With 12,592 jobs advertised, French is one of the most searched foreign languages in Great Britain. The average annual salary for such a position is $ 40,000.
2. German
German is the second most popular foreign language in Great Britain. This is not so surprising when you consider that Germany is one of the UK’s largest trading partners. This year, more than 10,000 positions were offered for which German language skills are required. The average income for such a position is $ 35,469.
3. Italian
Although Italian is the third most requested language in the UK, just a little over 5,000 job vacancies are advertised on the job sites.
4. Spanish
Spanish, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranks 4th according to this research, with nearly 4,800 job vacancies. Based on the level of the average salary, positions that require knowledge of Spanish are in second place. Only individuals who have mastered the Arabic language deserve more.
5. Danish
Interestingly, Danish ranks 5th in this ranking. 4,164 positions have been advertised so far in 2018. On average, companies are willing to pay around $ 35,500 for such a position.
According to this ranking, Chinese would only be in 7th place, but this language is the one that has seen the highest demand in the last year. Between June 2017 and September 2018, the number of positions requiring knowledge of Chinese increased by 325.9%.