"In San Jose, Spanish isn't optional. It's essential. Hospitals, banks-most public-facing companies-aren't hiring Spanish-speaking workers for diversity's sake. They're hiring them because they need them. If a large share of your customers only speak Spanish, you need staff who can speak it, too. That's operational reality. But society still treats bilingualism like an add-on, a perk, a resume booster, and not what it really is: a critical part of our regional workforce infrastructure."
"I'm a high school senior who has spent the last year researching how Spanish-English bilingualism affects wages and hiring across the Bay Area. I've spoken with hiring managers, analyzed thousands of job listings and built Bilingual Bay, a job board exclusively for bilingual jobs. What I've found is striking yet intuitive: The demand for bilingualism is everywhere, but our systems aren't designed to meet it."
Spanish proficiency is a workplace necessity for customer-facing services in San Jose, including hospitals and banks, because many customers speak only Spanish. Bilingualism operates as critical regional workforce infrastructure rather than a mere hiring perk. Employers often fast-track bilingual candidates, offer bonuses, or treat Spanish as effectively required, while many listings label Spanish as "preferred" without pay incentives. Late-start foreign-language education reduces the likelihood of native-like proficiency, constraining the supply of qualified bilingual graduates. Analysis of thousands of listings and a bilingual-focused job board show high demand that current education and compensation systems fail to meet.
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]