The use of English in job advertisments on the Dutch job site Monsterboard.nl and factors on which it depends

Abstract

Previous studies on the factors that determine the use of English in product advertising and print-medium job advertisements in non-English-speaking countries have overwhelmingly analysed English in product advertising. Drawing on the reasons suggested in such studies, the present contribution analyses the use of English in job advertisements from the Netherlands Monsterboard.nl job site and the factors on which it may depend. An analysis of a random sample of 120 advertisements revealed that 4% were completely in English, and that 88.5% of the remaining Dutch ads contained at least one English word. When we considered the number of English words as a proportion of the total number of words, we found that there was more English in job titles and logos than in other job ad elements. Advertisements for jobs in the ‘financial institutions sector’ contained less English than jobs in the ‘transport, storage and communications’ and ‘commercial services’ sectors. There was more English in ads placed by multinational organizations than in ads from domestic organizations. Ads for medium-level jobs contained less English than ads for higher-level and academic jobs. Most of our findings confirm the relevance of factors mentioned in previous research as determinants of the extent to which English is used in advertising in non-English-speaking countries.