20-Year Prospect
Want to hear something sad? No matter how loudly or slowly you talk, someone who doesn't speak your language can't understand you. Isn't that sad? It's because we had to go and invent these things called "different languages" and they have yet to stop causing us problems.
Unless you're in the line of work of translating or interpreting. In that case, cha-ching. Most jobs are expected to grow at an average of 11%. That's pretty good, right? Well, strap in, you polyglot, because translating and interpreting gigs are growing at a whopping 46% over the next ten years (source).
We'll pause for a second while you pick your jaw up off the floor.
Globalization is the chief engine driving this staggering number (source), and that's not a trend that's going in the other direction. The more integral the Internet gets, the more we become one big, global community, and the more we need to talk to each other. That's where you come in.
Sign language and Spanish interpreters have it even better than most (source) with the growth of both of those demographics all over the country.
It's not all rosy, though. Technology is already rapidly replacing translators. While Google Translate has some pretty well-documented, ahem, "problems" (source), the software is only going to get better. There's even a new app for smartphones, turning it into a mobile translator (source). So while the next couple years look great, the long term implies that translators and interpreters could be a thing of the past.