Daijob Global Recruiting Co., Ltd. | An Investigation into the Demand for "niche" Languages

REPORT2014/11/27

An investigation into the demand for language skills other than English

Jobs requiring language skills other than Japanese, English and Chinese have risen by a factor of 1.9 over the past year.

Daijob.com have investigated the demand for languages other than Japanese, English and Chinese (hereafter referred to as "niche languages") by looking into the languages required within job postings on their website.
Japanese companies have recently been expanding, primarily into Asia, and as a result require global talent to act as intermediaries between head office and the non-Japanese staff in foreign branches.

【Investigation Overview】

■Investigation Objective：To clarify the demand for foreign languages other than Japanese, English and Chinese.
■Investigation Period：2013/10/1 until 2014/10/1
■Investigation Sample：Job postings published on Daijob.com between 2013/10/1 and 2014/10/1

【Investigation Results】

■Demand for niche languages
Percentage of job postings requiring niche languages rises by a factor of 1.9.

The percentage of job postings requiring a niche language increased 1.9 times from October 2013 to October 2014. While 1.21% of all job postings in October 2013 required a niche language, this increased to 2.08% (0.87 percentage points) by October 2014.

A breakdown of the languages required shows an upward trend in the demand for Asian languages such as Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian, in addition to European languages such as French, German and Italian.

In addition, 83% of job postings requiring a niche language in both 2013 and 2014 demanded at least business level in that language.

■Demand for a niche language + Japanese
Companies focus on Japanese ability

88% of job postings that required a niche language in addition to Japanese during both 2013 and 2014 demanded at least business level Japanese. The proportion of job postings that required native level Japanese and a niche language increased by 10% by October 2014.

■Demand for niche languages by industry and occupation type
Sharp rises in demand seen in service, logistics and hotel/leisure industries in addition to translation, finance/accounting occupation types.

Industries with a strong demand for niche languages during both 2013 and 2014 include manufacturing and wholesale/retail, while high demand also existed for the service, logistics/posting and hotel/leisure/food & drink industries in 2014.
The demand for niche languages in sales remained high (particularly overseas sales and sales roles in manufacturing companies), while roles in education/language teaching, interpreting, finance/accounting and management saw a rise in demand.

For a more detailed report, please click here (Japanese only)

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