6 Most Lucrative Second Languages for Jobseekers

I have written recently about what is the world’s most influential languages, that is which languages will make you most employable. I cited the work of linguist George Weber  who developed a formula for assessing the influence of a language based on several criteria. I acknowledged it was a slightly older study so some of the ranking may have shifted slightly with the emergence of the BRIC economies, nethertheless, it was still a relevant and outstanding piece of analysis. The top ten most influential languages are below.

Based on his formula, the 10 most influential languages in the world are:

But, what are the most profitable languages?

But, on completing this analysis of the most influential language, it also raised the question for me, of what is the most profitable language?  Because the most ambitious career seekers don’t just want a job, they want a job that is going to be the most lucrative for them, that is which jobs will return the highest salaries?

This is clearly a complicated question to answer, but two US economists have attempted to answer this question. In 2005, Albert Saiz, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Elena Zoido, an economist at the consulting group LECG, published a study (reported in Forbes Magazine) which compared wage premiums for American college graduates who spoke Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese as a second language. Their findings were:

6 Most Lucrative Second Languages

1. Chinese: 4% wage premium. If you want to learn Mandarin try the: Rosetta Stone Chinese (Mandarin) Course (PC/Mac)

2.German: 4% wage premium. If you want to learn German, why not try the: Rosetta Stone German Course (PC/Mac)

3. Italian: 4% wage premium. If you want to learn Italian, why not try the:Rosetta Stone Italian Course (PC/Mac)

4. Russian: 4% wage premium. If you want to learn Russian, why not try the: Rosetta Stone Russian Course (PC/Mac)

5. French: 2.7% Wage Premium. If you want to learn French, why not try the Rosetta Stone French Course (PC/Mac)

6. Spanish: 1.7% Wage Premium. If you want to learn Spanish, why not try the Rosetta Stone Spanish (Spain) Course (PC/Mac).

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Further thoughts

Irene Missen of language specialist recruitment agency Euro London says that languages are especially important for sales, marketing or technical support. She estimates a language can add between 10% and 15% to your wage.

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