Bilingual Staffing
Language |
In-Person Interpretations FY 2023-2024 |
Percentage Increase or Decrease Compared to FY 2022-2023 |
In-Person Interpretations Five-Year Average ( FY 2020-2024 ) |
Cantonese 19,253 + 8.33 % 24,927
Mandarin 5,449 + 14.07 % 4,805
Spanish 48,312 + 11.68 % 41,145
Filipino 2,588 - 12.86 % 3,256
Russian 2,593 - 47.00 % 2,418
Vietnamese 1,826 + 14.99 % 2,164
Other Languages 3,462 - 20.18 % 2,957
TOTAL 83,483 + 4.88 % 81,672
Bilingual Staffing
The annual compliance report requires Departments to provide information about their bilingual staffing , including both non-certified and certified bilingual employees . Certified bilingual employees are employees who have passed the language proficiency testing administered by the Department of Human Resources ( DHR ). Bilingual employees who are not certified are individuals who identify as bilingual but have not taken the certification test . The figures listed below are estimated numbers of public contact staff and may not represent the full number of bilingual employees for all City departments .
In FY 2023-2024 , City departments reported about 2,600 bilingual employees , which is a 2 % decline from the previous fiscal year ’ s estimate of 2,640 bilingual employees . Both figures fall below the five-year average ( FY 2019-2020 to FY 2023-2024 ) of about 2,680 bilingual employees and are well below the peak of nearly 6,000 bilingual employees in FY 2016-2017 .
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