Number of Online Job Postings in Massachusetts Seeking Bilingual Candidates, 2010 and 2015

A handful of recent studies about state and local job markets has highlighted the need for employees with language skills. A study in Massachusetts found a sharp increase in online job postings seeking a candidate who could speak a language other than English: from 5,612 openings in 2010 to 14,561 in 2015. A similar study found that one in five job postings from some of New Jersey’s largest employers (including Bank of America, H&R Block, State Farm Insurance Companies, and Crossmark, Inc.) sought bilingual employees. A separate study from the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies found “half of all employers in northern Illinois plan to hire more bilingual or multilingual college graduates within five years.”