Accounting, support jobs drive Luxembourg workforce growth

Luxembourg’s workforce grew by almost 4% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022, driven by new support roles and specialised jobs such as accounting, the country’s official statistics agency Statec said on Wednesday.

The biggest jump was in the number of employees in specialised and support sectors, which were up 5% over the year, in areas such as accountancy and building cleaning services, Statec said on Wednesday.

The Grand Duchy had 457,000 workers last year, with cross-border staff commuting from the three neighbouring countries making up around half of the entire workforce.

The number of cross-border workers grew further in the second quarter, up 1.2% year-on-year, compared to a much smaller increase of just 0.6% in Luxembourg residents joining the workforce over the same period.

There was a 4% rise in public service and administration posts, mainly the result of the swelling of the central government payroll, Statec said, while there was a similar increase in the IT, communication and catering industries.

Unemployment has been consistently low over recent months compared to last year and the number of people out of work in September was 10% lower than the same month in 2021, unemployment agency Adem said last week.

Job vacancies remain at record high levels with more than 13,300 open positions available via the agency. There is a shortage of skilled workers in almost all sectors of the economy, recent Adem figures have shown.

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