Multilingual Job Applications Are Rising: What Our 2025 Data Reveals About Candidate Demand in Greece and Portugal

Candidate interest in multilingual employment opportunities is increasing rapidly.

An analysis of speakit’s recruitment data shows that applications for multilingual roles in Greece and Portugal increased by 37.9% overall between 2024 and 2025.

Greece recorded the strongest growth, with applications rising by 51.8%, while applications for opportunities in Portugal increased by 26.3%.

For employers recruiting multilingual teams, these figures point to a growing and increasingly active candidate market. They also reveal a more complex reality: a larger applicant pool does not automatically lead to a proportional increase in successful hires.

As interest in international employment grows, employers need stronger processes for identifying suitable candidates, matching them with the right positions and supporting them through interviews, offers and, where required, relocation.

Key findings from Speakit’s recruitment data

The clearest finding is the increase in candidate activity. Applications grew in both markets, demonstrating that multilingual and international career opportunities continue to attract significant interest

Portugal remains an established multilingual employment market

The lower rate of application growth should not be interpreted as weak candidate interest or limited job opportunities in Portugal.

Portugal has developed a visible international employment ecosystem, particularly in Lisbon and Porto. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area is home to contact centres, business service operations and shared service centres that recruit employees with specific foreign-language skills.

Portugal also had a larger foreign share of its active workforce than Greece in the latest comparable EURES data.

Source: EURES country labour-market profiles, drawing primarily on Eurostat datasets.

Portugal’s employment rate was higher, its unemployment rate was lower and its active workforce included a larger share of foreign workers.

These indicators show that Portugal is a comparatively international labour market. They do not, however, mean that every multilingual position will be easier to fill.

National labour-market indicators provide context but do not directly predict multilingual hiring outcomes. 

Why more applications do not automatically produce more hires

As applications increased, the percentage progressing to a recorded hire declined in both countries.

In Greece, the recorded hire rate moved from 4.28% in 2024 to 2.79% in 2025. In Portugal, it moved from 1.14% to 0.79%. Overall, the rate declined from 2.57% to 1.79%.

These figures should be interpreted carefully.

A lower application-to-hire rate can occur for several reasons, including:

The decrease in recorded hire rate should be interpreted in the context of significantly increased application volumes and changes in recruitment demand, candidate profiles and hiring requirements. The available data does not indicate a decline in recruitment performance, but rather highlights the need to assess conversion alongside application volume, vacancy levels and candidate suitability. 

What it does show is that a growing applicant pool creates both opportunity and complexity. Employers have access to more interested candidates, but they also need effective ways to identify which candidates are qualified, available and realistically able to complete the recruitment process.

Relocation is part of recruitment conversion

Cross-border mobility is central to the multilingual employment market in Greece and Portugal.

Official migration data shows that both countries recorded positive net migration in 2024.

Sources: ELSTAT and Statistics Portugal. Definitions and estimation methods may differ between national statistical systems.

Portugal recorded the larger positive migration balance, but both markets attract people from abroad.

Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum reported approximately 1.54 million foreign residents at the end of 2024, using a broad definition that includes several residence and regularisation categories.

The same report identified 24,868 German nationals among Portugal’s foreign resident population and recorded 3,691 residence titles granted to German nationals during 2024.

The residence-title figure should not be presented as the number of Germans who physically relocated to Portugal during that year. The date on which a title is granted may differ from the person’s date of arrival.

Nevertheless, the figures show that Portugal has an established international population, including a meaningful German-speaking community.

For employers, the existence of a mobile international workforce is an opportunity. But relocation can also create friction between candidate interest and completed employment.

Potential obstacles include:

Greece or Portugal: which market offers the greater opportunity?

The data does not support naming one country as the universally stronger multilingual recruitment destination.
Greece recorded the higher application-growth rate in speakit’s data and showed a clearer national shortage signal connected with customer-service occupations.
Portugal, meanwhile, has a larger international workforce and a well-established multilingual services ecosystem, particularly in Lisbon and Porto.

The stronger destination will depend on the employer’s specific requirements, including:
 

• The language being recruited.
• The number of vacancies.
• The role and sector.
• The destination city.
• Salary and benefits.
• Office-based or remote working requirements.
• Relocation support.
• Required hiring speed.
• Candidate availability at the time of recruitment.
   

A campaign recruiting for German speaking jobs in Greece may face different conditions from one recruiting for German-speaking jobs in Portugal.  Country-level statistics alone cannot capture these differences.

For employers, the more useful question is not simply “Greece or Portugal?” 

It’s “which combination of location, role, language, employment package and candidate support offers the strongest match for our recruitment needs?”

What speakit’s data tells us about the next stage of multilingual recruitment

The growth in applications shows that multilingual employment remains attractive.
Candidates continue to show interest in international careers, foreign-language positions and opportunities to live and work in Greece or Portugal.

The challenge for employers is no longer limited to reaching enough people. It is converting candidate interest into sustainable employment.
 

That requires:

• More precise targeting.
• Better candidate qualification.
• Faster recruitment decisions.
• Competitive and transparent employment packages.
• Realistic relocation support.
• Communication that continues until the candidate starts work.
   

Employers that manage these areas effectively will be better positioned to benefit from the growing multilingual talent pool.
 

Conclusion
 

Candidate interest in multilingual jobs is rising in both Greece and Portugal.

Speakit's data recorded a 37.9% overall increase in applications between 2024 and 2025, with particularly strong growth in Greece.
 

For HR leaders, talent acquisition teams, BPO companies and shared service centres, this represents a significant recruitment opportunity. But it also reinforces an important point: the size of an applicant pool does not determine recruitment success on its own.

The employers that benefit most from growing candidate demand will be those that can identify the right candidates, communicate clearly, make decisions quickly and support international applicants through the practical realities of relocation.
 

Multilingual talent is showing interest. The next competitive advantage is turning that interest into the right long-term hire.