Demand High for Bilingual Workers
— reported by HispanicBusiness.com
In a city nearly 36 percent Hispanic, and which receives 4 million Mexican visitors annually, having a bilingual staff is more a necessity than an option for Tucson’s small- and mid-sized businesses.
Some business owners, however, are finding that recruiting qualified bilingual applicants is easier said than done.
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So why the dearth of bilingual applicants?
One reason may be that people who can speak Spanish at a conversational level do not have the same competency at a higher level typically required in the workplace, said Mary Gruensfelder-Cox, executive director of the nonprofit
Microbusiness Advancement Center, an organization that aids minority- and women-owned businesses.“Just like any high-demand, low-supply commodity, these folks are few and far between,” she said. “It’s even worse when you’re talking about having certain job skills beyond the language capability.”
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