Under pressure: translation in times of austerity

The profession of translation is undergoing enormous change, expedited by the global recession that began in 2007–2008. Government policies and an intensive focus on cost has resulted in a large scale move to freelance or contingent work, leaving the worker in a precarious position with regard to rights and undermining his or her agency. This shift is exemplified particularly by the vendor model widespread in specialised translation work. Related to the downward pressure on costs and productivity is the technologisation of translation, with translation tools becoming a necessity and new use cases being found for post-edited and raw machine translation.Despite the recession, continued growth has been reported for the language industry, and the outlook for employment in translation is positive. This paper looks at the background to the economic and technological changes to translation, attempts to put them into a wider context, and looks to the options available to translators to maximise their agency within the ‘global value chain’. Translators have little option but to embrace new competences, but also need to focus on their expertise to maximise leverage and agency.