If Alicia Vikander ever gets sick of acting, the Swedish actress can still make a killing with her language skills. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com
Speaking a second language is a beneficial skill to possess. So for companies to include it as a job requirement is of no surprise. However, some cunning linguists are more desired than others, according to new research by Adzuna, the job search engine.,
Having surveyed over one million live job ads, Adzuna found that the Swedish language had the highest paying salary of £54,890 going above the listed average of £33,993. Following Swedish, Arabic came in second at £41,100 with Dutch in third with £38,206.
However, not all linguistically skilled workers can expect an increased paycheque. For instance, the salaries Danish speakers could expect dropped by 61.4%. Comparatively, remunerations for role requiring some Greek and Russian skills plunged by 53.5% and 34.7% respectively.
Adzuna isn’t focusing solely on the wage but goes on to reveal what the most sought after language in job features is. French tops this list with 15,288 jobs seeking the skill set. German claims the second slot at 8,876 and Italian fills the third at 4,623. Interestingly, Swedish wasn’t even among the top ten most sought after languages but came in 12th with 1,100 live vacancies.
Commenting on the research, Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Looking at our 2019 data it may be no shock that French is the most in-demand language for UK employers, but perhaps it’s a surprise – and delight – to see the Welsh language holding its own against more widely spoken languages. It’s interesting to see the growing demand and monetary value placed on Mandarin language skills – this could illustrate the important ties with the Asian market in the run-up to the exit of the European Union.”
It is evident a large number of employers are looking to incorporate the skill of a second language to their business field. But you only need to look at how British businesses trade in a globalised market to understand why. 
