Discussions about which foreign languages to learn are often based on the number of native speakers a language has. However, on the job market, what languages look good on a CV is determined by other factors, especially,
- the economic relationships between your country and the countries where the target language is spoken,
- the scarcity of other applicants who can use those languages on a professional level.
For Germans, English is presumably the most important foreign language, i.e. the one that is most often expected on a CV. However, after English, what are the five most "valuable" foreign languages on a CV, based on the job opportunities they give access to? I would appreciate answers based on data, not on articles that make claims about this question that are not underpinned by data.
(Foreign language skills can also be valuable in other ways. See for example the question Through which language can you learn the most other languages online?. However, this is not what my question is about. This is also not about how many foreign languages you should put on your CV.)