TIME: translation is a $ 9.4b business

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In its latest issue, the TIME magazine featured an article entitled "Translation Nation" on the current situation in the translation industry. TIME reporter Jeff Ressner writes that "the Web and the global economy have led to 7.5% annual growth in the market, now pegged as a $ 9.4 billion business, according to research group Common Sense Advisory."

In the Defense sector, for instance, translation is nowadays considered a crucial factor, leading to billion dollar contracts awarded to companies providing translators in war zones. L-3, for instance, which recently lost its Iraq & Afghanistan contract for the U.S. Army to competitor GLS, pays US$ 175,000 for linguists willing to work and "live in a harsh environment".

Ressner's article, however, also highlights that there are safer ways to work in a growing market.

"Firms from Starbucks to McDonald's now have to communicate and market to customers in dozens of different languages," Don DePalma, president of Common Sense Advisory, is cited.

The growing recognition of the increasingly multilingual society in the U.S. and elsewhere also contribute to the rising demand for linguists and linguistic services. Over the next year the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a 25% rise in the demand for full-time-employed translators and interpreters, Ressner writes.

Especially software localization contributes to the market growth. With the increase of national and regional standards, such as those of the EU, requiring that manuals and instructions have to be published in local languages, global players in the GILT-industries (globalization, internationalization, localization and translation) employ thousands of linguists worldwide. Lionbridge, for instance, "the biggest player in translation services last year" has 4,000 full-time staff members and 10,000 freelancers in 25 countries, and a "a current market cap of $ 350 million."

According to forecasts, the outlook for the translation industries is generally positives. Global players in the industry annually grow by up to 20%. Even freelancers can expect to profit from a general growth in demand. According to the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies (EUATC) the market will continue to grow at 5% per annum in the next decade. Even "in the event of a slow down in the growth of international trade, the translation industry will be affected ... to a lesser extent," the EUATC's most recent report announced.

Sources & Related Information:

Translation Nation

L-3 loses $ 4.6 billion deal to DynCorp

EUATC makes predictions: Translation Market 2006-2010

Ranking of Top 20 Translation Companies

Common Sense Advisory