Key points: 

  • 2.8% of job postings in the UK stated explicitly that English was not required in the 12 months to August 2024, similar to the share of postings in Germany that did not require German, but generally much lower than the share of postings not requiring the native language in other European countries. 
  • In the UK, the share of “English not required” postings was highest in the Cleaning & Sanitation (7.9%), Driving (7.6%), and Beauty & Wellness (6.6%) occupations — jobs that are typically lower-paid.
  • Visa sponsorship — another popular way that employers can indicate an openness to hiring foreign workers — is most common for generally higher-paid, professional job categories, including Social Science (5.3% of postings), Pharmacy (3.9%), and Media & Communications (2.4%). 

Migrant workers represent a growing contribution to employment in the UK and many other advanced economies, helping mitigate the impact of declining birth rates and labour shortages. Employers interested in hiring foreign-born workers often signal this in job postings by explicitly stating that knowledge of a given country’s native language is unnecessary — a posting in the UK, for example, that says “English not required.” Employers also signal an openness to hiring foreign workers by overtly offering visa sponsorship to potential hires. Examining trends for the UK and a handful of European countries can help identify the types of jobs that recent and/or would-be migrants to these countries are interested in and qualified for.

For some jobs, speaking the country’s primary language is optional

Among Europe’s largest economies, the Netherlands has the largest share of postings that do not require knowledge of Dutch (7.8%), followed by Spain (5.8% do not require Spanish). For Italy and France, the share of their respective main official languages is around 4%, while in the UK, Germany, and Ireland, it ranges from 2.4 to 2.8%. 

Bar chart titled “For some jobs, speaking the country’s primary language is optional” comparing the percentage of job postings that don't require the country's main language across seven European countries, from September 2023 to August 2024. The Netherlands leads with 7.8%, while the UK, Germany, and Ireland have the lowest percentages at around 2.4-2.8%.
Bar chart titled “For some jobs, speaking the country’s primary language is optional” comparing the percentage of job postings that don’t require the country’s main language across seven European countries, from September 2023 to August 2024. The Netherlands leads with 7.8%, while the UK, Germany, and Ireland have the lowest percentages at around 2.4-2.8%.

The Netherlands stands out. Factors including the high percentage of people living in the Netherlands who speak a foreign language might partly explain this. Also, the Netherlands has a high share (5%) of job postings written in English, consistent with the idea that a relatively high share of jobs are open to non-Dutch speakers.

Related to this last point, some of the dissimilarities across countries are due to differences in the occupational mix. If job postings in some countries are skewed towards the types of occupations that do not tend to mention flexibility with language requirements, then the overall share of postings that don’t require native language skills will be lower. When we recalculate the figures applying the UK’s occupational mix to all countries, we find that the Netherlands is still in the lead with 8.7%, followed by Spain (6.0%), France (4.2%), Italy (4.1%), Germany (3.4%), the UK (2.8%, same as before), and Ireland (2.5%).

Interestingly, these numbers are similar to migration flow statistics. For example, Germany received 24.7 migrants per 1000 inhabitants in 2022, a figure similar to Spain. Of course, the stock of migrants is much higher. For instance, 16% of people in the UK had been born abroad (2021/2022 Census data reported by Oxford’s Migration Observatory). This suggests that language requirements are relevant to understanding flow statistics (new migrants). 

Employers may be using flexibility with English language skills as a signal to recent or future immigrants. It can, therefore, be thought of as a proxy for willingness to hire such migrants. While most migrants to the UK speak English or tend to eventually learn it, it’s important to note that clusters of migrants in certain regions and industries might delay learning the local language until after they begin working. And in large cities like London, some migrant workers might easily live and work for decades without ever speaking the local language. 

The share of postings not requiring applicants to know a country’s native language represents a kind of signal employers send to the market and thus can shed some light on employer preferences. These preferences might not be related 1-to-1 to the ultimate market equilibrium, in terms of, for instance, the migrant share of employment in a certain occupation or industry. However, the language requirement shares reflect deep trends in labour markets that are important to understanding migration. Thus, our research focuses on preferences at the margin for migrant workers.

Lower-paid jobs tend to be more flexible with language skills

The sectors with high and low shares of postings open to non-native speakers represent a broad cross-section of the UK labour market. The top occupations over the past year were Cleaning and Sanitation, Driving, and Beauty and Wellness. 

Two bar charts titled “UK: Language requirements vary across occupations” display the percentage of job postings not requiring English in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. The first chart shows the top 10 occupations, led by Cleaning & Sanitation at 7.9%. The second chart shows the bottom 10 occupations, with Mathematics having the lowest percentage at 0.3%.
Two bar charts titled “UK: Language requirements vary across occupations” display the percentage of job postings not requiring English in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. The first chart shows the top 10 occupations, led by Cleaning & Sanitation at 7.9%. The second chart shows the bottom 10 occupations, with Mathematics having the lowest percentage at 0.3%.

Many of the categories with the highest share of “English not required” postings are typically lower-paying. Many lower-paid sectors already employ lots of foreign workers. In 2023, foreign-born workers accounted for 27% of employment in elementary cleaning occupations, 29% in road transport driving, 24% in hairdressing and related services, and 36% in food preparation and hospitality trades, according to our analysis of the UK Labour Force Survey. There may be less need for new hires to speak English in environments where many colleagues were born abroad.

Scatter plot titled “Higher-paying Occupations tend to be less flexible with language requirements” illustrates the negative correlation between median salaries and the percentage of job postings stating 'English not required' in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Lower-paid occupations generally have a higher percentage of postings not requiring English.
Scatter plot titled “Higher-paying Occupations tend to be less flexible with language requirements” illustrates the negative correlation between median salaries and the percentage of job postings stating ‘English not required’ in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Lower-paid occupations generally have a higher percentage of postings not requiring English.

However, the correlation between language flexibility and migrant shares is not perfect. Nursing is a good example. Some 32% of UK nurses are foreign-born, but only 2.6% of nurse postings in the UK state that English is not needed — below the nationwide average. Even if not a native speaker, the ability of workers in these roles to communicate with customers or patients matters greatly in certain occupations, like healthcare. It would not be practical or safe to have Google translate a non-native-language speaker’s diagnosis or care plan — it is necessary for them to be able to communicate it themselves. 

Employers’ propensity to specify that English isn’t required doesn’t seem to be correlated with the intensity of demand for new workers. Indeed’s Job Posting Index has trended similarly for the 10 occupations with the highest ‘English not required’ shares and for the 10 occupations with the lowest shares. This suggests this signal to candidates is driven more by the features of the job and the occupation than by the strength of labour demand.

Even within the occupations with the greatest language flexibility, there is a lot of variation across job titles. For the three occupations with the largest “English not required” shares, we selected the seven sub-occupations with the highest number of postings. We then ranked them by the share of “English not required” postings to see which specific jobs are most flexible with English language skills.   

Three sets of bar plots titled “UK: Within occupations there are also differences in language requirements” show the percentage of 'English not required' job postings for the top three occupations and their sub-occupations in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Cleaning & Sanitation, Driving, and Beauty & Wellness are the main categories, with significant variations among sub-occupations. 
Three sets of bar plots titled “UK: Within occupations there are also differences in language requirements” show the percentage of ‘English not required’ job postings for the top three occupations and their sub-occupations in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Cleaning & Sanitation, Driving, and Beauty & Wellness are the main categories, with significant variations among sub-occupations. 

Courier drivers have nearly 27% of ‘English not required’ job postings, but truck drivers require more English proficiency (just 4.2% in this category). This may be because of regulations (i.e., truck driver licences require more exams, and hence more proficiency in English) or because of job characteristics (i.e., truck drivers might need to verbally communicate more with fellow team members, while couriers can use apps or other electronic aids). Within the Beauty and Wellness occupation, Nail Technicians have more than 12% of “English not required” job postings, while Senior Hair Stylists seem to require more knowledge of English (less than 3% of “English not required” job postings). This could be because the latter job entails greater interaction with customers and/or more team-management tasks. 

When analysing other European countries’ occupations, some shared patterns appear, such as relatively high shares for Beauty and Wellness, and Cleaning and Sanitation. However, in France and Spain, some non-low-skilled occupations have non-negligible language shares. This might be due to international companies hiring for finance and tech hubs in those countries. For instance, an English-speaking Investment Banker in Paris or a Software Developer in Barcelona. These could be remote workers, or in-person workers within an international company. North-South European offshoring could also be driving part of this, motivated by cost differences and/or worker location preferences. 

Visa Sponsorship Trends

These three occupations (Driving, Cleaning and Sanitation, and Beauty and Wellness) are generally accessible for those seeking entry-level roles. However, some migrant workers are more highly skilled and are offered visa sponsorship in hopes of attracting them to take a job. In the UK in the last twelve months, on average 0.5% of job postings explicitly offered visa sponsorship.

This route has become an increasingly important way to hire migrants, post-Brexit. According to the UK Home Office, 321,101 total visas were issued in the year-ending June 2023, almost double the amount before Brexit. Most of the work visas issued were the Skilled Visa type (including Health and Care Worker Visa), which requires sponsorship. Some high-skilled workers can apply for a new UK work visa introduced in 2022 that does not require sponsorship, though this visa accounts for less than 9% of total visas. Obtaining a visa does require proof of English knowledge, via certificates or academic degrees in English. 

Some occupations, including Social Science and Pharmacy, have high visa shares but low “English not required” shares. These occupations tend to be among those eligible as listed on the UK’s Skilled Worker Salary Immigration list and/or the Health and Care Worker list

Table titled “Top visa sponsorship occupations” displaying the top 5 UK occupations by percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship, from September 2023 to August 2024. It includes columns for occupation name, visa sponsorship percentage, 'English not required' percentage, and the median annual salary. Social Science leads with 5.3% visa sponsorship, while having only 0.4% 'English not required' and a median salary of £39,436.
Table titled “Top visa sponsorship occupations” displaying the top 5 UK occupations by percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship, from September 2023 to August 2024. It includes columns for occupation name, visa sponsorship percentage, ‘English not required’ percentage, and the median annual salary. Social Science leads with 5.3% visa sponsorship, while having only 0.4% ‘English not required’ and a median salary of £39,436.

Conversely, occupations with high “English not required” shares are associated with low visa sponsorship shares, including Cleaning and Sanitation.

Table titled “Bottom visa sponsorship occupations” presents the bottom 5 UK occupations by percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship, from September 2023 to August 2024. Columns show occupation name, visa sponsorship percentage, 'English not required' percentage, and median annual salary. Cleaning & Sanitation has the lowest visa sponsorship at 0.0%, but the highest 'English not required' at 7.9%, with a median salary of £23,622.
Table titled “Bottom visa sponsorship occupations” presents the bottom 5 UK occupations by percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship, from September 2023 to August 2024. Columns show occupation name, visa sponsorship percentage, ‘English not required’ percentage, and median annual salary. Cleaning & Sanitation has the lowest visa sponsorship at 0.0%, but the highest ‘English not required’ at 7.9%, with a median salary of £23,622.

Occupations that offer visa sponsorship tend to be higher paid, as evidenced by advertised salaries. In fact, regression analysis reveals that wages in job postings are negatively correlated with “English not required” but positively with visa sponsorship. Thus, the former category can be associated with low-skill occupations while the latter with high-skilled ones.

Scatter plot titled “Higher-paying occupations tend to sponsor more work visas” shows the positive relationship between median salaries and the percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Higher-paid occupations tend to have a greater share of postings offering visa sponsorship.
Scatter plot titled “Higher-paying occupations tend to sponsor more work visas” shows the positive relationship between median salaries and the percentage of job postings offering visa sponsorship in the UK, from September 2023 to August 2024. Higher-paid occupations tend to have a greater share of postings offering visa sponsorship.

Almost all UK postings are written in English, even if they say “English is not required”

Paradoxically, almost all (99.9%) job postings that mention ‘English is not required’ are written in English. How does a worker who does not understand English read such a posting? To further understand this potential bias, we explored the language of the posting itself. 

The share of ‘English not required’ is much larger when the UK posting is in a foreign language. For example, more than a third of postings in Italian had ‘English not required’ specified. However, postings in foreign languages are a rarity: less than .01% of postings are in a foreign language. Thus, this dimension does not drive the aggregates or the dispersion across occupations.  

When employers post a job ad in English but don’t require English skills, who are they targeting? It is likely that migrants who do not speak English are not the main group they are targeting, but that employers are open to such a demographic. It might also be possible that some migrants use translation tools to read job postings. Finally, although clusters of migrants might create incentives for limited language adoption (especially for temporary migrants), over the years, most migrant workers do learn the language of their adopted country. Writing the posting in English may be a way to signal that while knowledge of the language is not required at the hiring stage, it is relevant for the worker’s future at the firm. 

Conclusion 

This analysis of language requirements in job postings provides valuable insights into the openness of European labour markets to migrant workers, especially as native workforces age and begin to shrink and new sources of future workers need to be identified. The implications for the future of work are numerous, including the potential impact of generative artificial intelligence tools that demonstrate strong language and translation abilities and which may enable more non-native-language speakers to contribute more productively in more roles. 

Methodology

This analysis is based on an attribute that we collect from job posting data that captures whether knowledge of the country’s primary language is explicitly unnecessary for the job (e.g., English not required in the UK, French not required in France, etc.). Indeed began prompting employers about this type of language flexibility in 2022 in an effort to help the more than 6 million Ukrainian refugees following the Russian-Ukraine war. In this analysis, we focus on job postings where employers were exposed to the prompt. Since it took time from the moment the prompt was introduced for the stock of postings with flexible language requirements to reach a steady state, we focus on data for the 12 months to August 2024.