Opportuny For Translation Agencies Appears To Be Rising
It’s a trend that everyone knows. Many of America’s top jobs are moving offshore. Which jobs are most likely to be hit by “offshoring”?. In the United States, demand is particularly good for native speakers of Portuguese, Japanese, German, Spanish, Russian and several others. Yet while Chinese Document Translation and interpretation workers can rest easily for a moment, the employment status of other skilled service workers is at great risk. In fact, large numbers of jobs requiring people with advanced skills are being relocated to underdeveloped nations. While the trend continues, it has gained the attention of the media and has sparked policy debate among academia, lawmakers, economists and various trade groups.
Can Translation Jobs Be Outsourced?
In general, offshoring revolves around the costs associated with transferring control of the labor process to an external entity in another country. In an interview with The New York Times, an owner of a Portuguese Document Translation agency stated, “Outsourcing appears to work contrary to the claim that free trade will create the jobs of tomorrow in America when high-tech or high paying white-collar jobs are transferred to or created in foreign countries.” Firms primarily engage in offshoring as a means to reduce their labor costs and add profit to their bottom line. But sometimes companies have other reasons that include the need to overcome regulations by entering new markets and even to be closer to a more talented workforce. But while the reasons for outsourcing sometimes vary, declines in U.S. manufacturing jobs and increases in U.S. Russian to English Translation service jobs is consistent. But it is important to pause for a moment and keep in mind that offshoring is a trend that has been going on for many years and is driven by global trade. Since the sudden and significant growth in outsourcing began, several important changes in the business environment in the late 1990s facilitated the emergence and rapid growth of services offshoring, including the offshoring of activities with significant engineering and medical content. Some examples include Medical Translation professionals, Electrical Engineers, Aerospace Engineers and more. These changes have been made possible due to advances in information technology, an increase in the demand for certain types of technical skills, and the emergence of appropriately skilled, low-wage workforces in India, China, and elsewhere.
As we move into a new decade, the same debate will be following us as offshoring moves into the fields of engineering and medicine the same way it entered the manufacturing sector of the US economy almost 20-years ago. Over two decades, many people and groups have demonstrated against the offshoring of American jobs and continue to argue about the lasting effects that it will have. However, others believe that offshoring creates value for the U.S. economy by creating value for U.S. companies and freeing U.S. resources for activities with more value added.
What’s Stopping Language Translation Agencies From Being Offshored?
While translations companies located in the US have long suggested that offshoring has helped their businesses, a growing number of language translation trade associations are dismissing these claims. It is more than likely that at the current pace of offshoring, more translation companies and translator jobs will be located outside of the United States. Furthermore, a German Translation company reports that continued offshoring puts U.S. leadership in science and engineering is now at risk as well as translation services. Throughout developed nations, an increasing number of workers involved in the translation and interpretation service industry are increasingly worried about further offshoring moves. If these country’s can provide high value in terms of science and engineering human resources, America’s ability to innovate and sustain economic growth will be seriously undermined. The results will then be a deterioration of translation services within the United States.
