Comments on: How will the recession reshape the translation industry?

By: Maximm

Maximm — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:07:11 +0000

In our part of the world (Ukraine) translators have to be content with $0.02 per word, but surely you cannot compare the standards of living in Ukraine with first world countries, so it should not be very surprising. Though it allows the agencies to lower the prices of translators’ work by outsourcing to poorer countries.

By: MT

MT — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:25:13 +0000

One thing about the translation industry is that the pool of translation agencies seems to vary over time, but all those agencies are using a much more stable population of freelance translators that they all use. Thus, the recession is forcing agencies to compete with each other more intensely, but I’m not seeing the same thing in the world of freelancers. I agree with the previous commenters that “hobbyist” translators (those who are less professional or serious) are being forced out of the freelancer market, so there is that effect. But this might be good for “professional” translators overall.

I am noticing a bit of downward price pressure from some badly run, mostly larger translation agencies; freelancers who resist this pricing pressure I suspect will be rewarded in short order because the “cheap” translators these agencies are turning to won’t pay off for the agencies (lower quality, less reliability, flakiness, etc.).

Translators who lower their rates are only forcing themselves out of business sooner, anyway, since you can’t live on a translator’s income charging only $0.06 per word.

By: Frederic Jacquier-Calbet

Frederic Jacquier-Calbet — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:09:48 +0000

I totally agree with the 2 Toms, this recession (looks more like a quieter period here) will definitely rid us of the more careless and happy-go-lucky colleagues/competitors. In my part of the world, I can see a few translators having to go back to full-time teaching…You probably know one too. He/She’s the one who just forgot (oh my goodness!) to ask about payment terms for the last assignment and forgot to send you an invoice the last time you subcontracted work to him/her…six month ago! In this respect the translation industry is like any other industry. What the expression again? Survival of the fittest?

By: Marianne

Marianne — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:44:20 +0000

Hi Corinne:

Again, a very interesting post and issue.
Recently, I had to deal with 2 jobs where I had to be the “fixer”. The clients had tried to cut corners and (whether a consequence of the recession or mere carelessness, I am not sure) had paid low rates for some legal translations. The results were catastrophic. I explained to the client that I would “fix” the translations but that they would not have wasted money if they had hired me to do it in the first place. One of the clients has already sent me 3 more projects since. So I would like to believe that I benefited from their first inclination to save costs, which in this case was the wrong assessment.

By: Tom Ellett

Tom Ellett — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:28:53 +0000

I think niche-market translators with a good reputation and an established clientele will survive the recession. Less likely to survive will be those all-languages, all-subjects agencies that have expanded rapidly and unsustainably in recent years, and the translators that agree to work for them at ever declining rates.

By: Tom Roland

Tom Roland — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:41:05 +0000

Interesting question. I certainly see some bilingual people with many years of working experience in non-translation fields moving into freelance translation because the full-time job market is so tight, confirming the entrepreneurial trend mentioned on TotN. I also see some sizable translation agencies with cashflow problems that will not bode well for the translators who expect timely payment from them. The big localization service providers that have cash reserves will probably make some acquisitions at rock-bottom prices. But will there be any paradigm shifts? I’m not sure… definitely food for thought.