Poll: Are you seeing less translation work in 2023? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are you seeing less translation work in 2023?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 08:05
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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| Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 08:05
English to German
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| | No, no difference... | Aug 30, 2023 |
... but work has been more irregular than ever: a slow month is followed by an hectic one…
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Elaine Cunha
Brazil
Local time: 04:05
Spanish to Portuguese
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In audiovisual translation, yes.
| | | | | Less, because ... | Aug 31, 2023 |
I had been telling my clients that I had a stroke. But now I'm ready to get in the game again. I told one client that I was happy to accept a lower rate, and it turned out that they had already had a lower rate for Latin America -- which explains why I had been getting only Portuguese -> English from African countries and no jobs from Latin America in either Portuguese or Spanish. Now I have just delivered a 12,537-word project. I'm in business again!
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My hypothesis: it's an effect of AI promotion, which will fade out soon (in the historical time )
| | | | Nikolay Novitskiy
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:05
Member (2018)
English to Russian
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
But now I'm ready to get in the game again... Now I have just delivered a 12,537-word project. I'm in business again!
You are great, Muriel - keep pressing on it! You will reclaim what is yours in the industry.
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Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 08:05
English to German
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Gennady Lapardin wrote:
My hypothesis: it's an effect of AI promotion, which will fade out soon (in the historical time )
And recession.
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I was definitely seeking less translation work in 2023 but now I still have the weekends left.
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Much less. August was the quiestest month I have had in over 23 years of working as a translator and September isn't shaping up to be much better.
| | | | | A little less, but patterns changed | Sep 5, 2023 |
I got used to pretty regular work after COVID, so I thought it was going to stay that way, but at the start of the year I noticed I had no real projects, just small jobs here and there. At the end of August I compared my earnings to the ones of 2022 and it was only 2.000 EUR less, so not a huge change. Some months are empty, other are so full that I cannot take all the opportunities that get offered to me.
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Colin Smith
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:05
French to English
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1st half 2023 was actually better than that of 2022, but work fell off a cliff at end May and I see no sign of a resumption.
Looking further back, my customer base has shrunk from 6 agencies in 3 countries to 2 agencies in 1 city, which have now merged into 1, and my 2022 turnover was 1/3rd of 2018 turnover.
My one remaining agency just sent me a 1000 word PEMT job which I accepted, confirmed on their portal, downloaded the package and was half way through it when they ... See more 1st half 2023 was actually better than that of 2022, but work fell off a cliff at end May and I see no sign of a resumption.
Looking further back, my customer base has shrunk from 6 agencies in 3 countries to 2 agencies in 1 city, which have now merged into 1, and my 2022 turnover was 1/3rd of 2018 turnover.
My one remaining agency just sent me a 1000 word PEMT job which I accepted, confirmed on their portal, downloaded the package and was half way through it when they emailed me and said they has given it to someone else.
My grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather were London taxi / horse-drawn cab drivers. It is perhaps time to revert to the family tradition. ▲ Collapse
| | | | memond
Local time: 02:05
Member (2015)
English to French
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| Hoping this is only temporary | Sep 8, 2023 |
I see a difference since August. In previous years and at least until July of this year, I received so many offers that I regularly had to turn them down. I often had work weeks of 7 days a week. Since August, I still have projects every week, but they are much fewer and they are mainly related to editing “Machine translations”.
At first, I was happy to be able to breathe a little and I told myself it was because of the holidays. But, reading the other comments, I realize that... See more I see a difference since August. In previous years and at least until July of this year, I received so many offers that I regularly had to turn them down. I often had work weeks of 7 days a week. Since August, I still have projects every week, but they are much fewer and they are mainly related to editing “Machine translations”.
At first, I was happy to be able to breathe a little and I told myself it was because of the holidays. But, reading the other comments, I realize that this slowdown seems to be generalizing. Now I'm starting to get a little stressed. Until now, I managed to earn a very good living (by working a lot of hours...), a few agencies gave me with a lot of projects per week, and I no longer had to look for new agencies/clients. Now I'm wondering if I should still look for other new agencies/clients with all the problems that entails (I thought I was done with that...).
I don't know if it's a temporary slowdown or if it's because of AI, but I'm starting to hate AI. If many humans are no longer able to live properly (in all areas), is this really progress? Will only people working in AI now be able to work? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | 2023 - the year of generative AI | Sep 14, 2023 |
Just like memond and many other translators, I am really worried about generative AI's impact on freelance translators' livelihood:
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-ais-breakout-year
... See more Just like memond and many other translators, I am really worried about generative AI's impact on freelance translators' livelihood:
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-ais-breakout-year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_artificial_intelligence
This article is locked, but seems relevant:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90927926/history-skills-gap-ai-era
This morning, I posed below question to an IT teacher at an IT university in Bangalore, India (whom I have met personally in India):
"This year 2023 is the year of generative AI. Many translators, including me, fear that this will be the death blow for most translators as it will reduce translation work offered to human translators to a minimum. Do you know what the status for current developments within generative AI is? It seems to be launching right now this autumn 2023 (I think it was not widely rolled out earlier this year but have just started)."
His answer:
"Yes, you are right: All semi-skill tech work will go away to AI driven tools".
A few days ago, my brother said that they've begun to implement generative AI at his company of which he is a joint owner. My brother is in the marketing and advertising business. So it seems something has started large-scale just recently, this month September. He further said that "I don't think people in general realize how big this thing is." So I don't think generative AI is something that will fade out anytime soon.
I agree with others on this topic, that the year began fairly well, but from April I've barely been able to keep my head above water. And for this month September, I have not yet received a real job, and we are already halfway into the month. Only tiny jobs on a few euro.
Besides generative AI, it is my impression that the two other major contributing factors are the recession as well as a highly regulated translation market.
[Edited at 2023-09-14 10:38 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-09-14 10:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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