German overtakes French as employers' preferred language

German has overtaken French as the language most sought-after by employers, new research from jobs site Indeed has found.

Amid fears companies are facing a shortfall of linguists, vacancies specifying German language skills increased by more than a tenth over the past three years, compared with only a slight rise in demand for French speakers.

Chinese has jumped from the fifth to the third most popular language for companies seeking employees, with a 35% rise in jobs that require speakers of the language since 2016.

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The Independent says fewer European Union nationals looking for work in the UK amid Brexit uncertainty, coupled with a drop in language learning in schools, was leading to a “worsening language shortfall”.

“Compounding the dearth of foreign language speakers are Office of National Statistics figures which say net migration from the EU is at its lowest in a decade”, the Daily Mail reports.

Bill Richards, UK managing director of Indeed says: “Many UK employers who require multilingual staff are becoming increasingly unsettled as a perfect storm brews - fewer linguists are emerging from our education system just as Brexit uncertainty looks to be deterring workers relocating here from the EU”.

Generally, demand for linguists has risen by 2.7% since 2016 among employers, despite fewer pupils taking foreign language GCSEs and A levels.

The Times says German “has fared particularly badly amid the language crisis”, with many schools dropping it at A level and some at GCSE.

“More teenagers now take Chinese than German A level” notes the paper.