Slator Job Index Edges Up Again in July 2019

The Slator Language Industry Job Index (LIJI) was developed for the purpose of tracking how employment and hiring activity trends in the global language industry.

In July 2019, its twelfth month, the Slator LIJI rose to 102.81 up from 102.38 in June 2019. The baseline was taken to be July 2018 (100), the starting point from which to measure expansion or contraction of employment and hiring activity across the industry.

The index has fluctuated over the past six months, reaching a new high in December 2018 before dipping in January 2019 and February 2019. It then grew three consecutive months in March 2019, April 2019, and May 2019.
The upward trend in July was reflected in most of the indicators used for the LIJI, including majority of the job aggregation sites monitored by Slator and job postings from Slator LSPI companies. There was a decrease in the number of profiles returned using a keyword search for those registered under the Translation and Localization category on LinkedIn, which mitigated the overall increase.

Observational data relating to activity across the language industry in June 2019 show good indicators of a buoyant industry, with M&A and funding activity continuing strongly, and the generally encouraging performance of a handful of listed LSPs (PRO).

In M&A news, Super Agency Welocalize acquired UK-based digital marketing company Search Star and Australia-listed Straker bought Spanish boutique LSP On-Global. Language industry veteran Jeff Brink simultaneously unveiled his new company, Big Language Solutions, backed by MSouth Equity Partners, and completed the acquisition of Miami-based LSP ProTranslating.

In recent hiring, Lilt brought in Lionbridge veteran Roberto Sastre and Keywords Studios appointed a new CFO. 

Several developments covered by Slator highlighted likely drivers of localization demand. In the UK, a translation and interpreting tender for a USD 100m framework contract will soon be up for renewal; while in Canada, the government has laid out plans for an Official Languages Maturity Model, designed to assess the role that French and English play in institutional activities.

The Slator LIJI relies on LinkedIn for a substantial part of the underlying data. The site has some 500 million users, many of whom share data about their skills, experience, location, company, and job title on their personal LinkedIn pages. There are over 600,000 profiles under the Translation and Localization category and a search for the keyword Localization also yields over 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.