Luxembourg companies keep rebuilding after pandemic job cuts

Thanks to a rebound in government jobs, Luxembourg residents were bigger beneficiaries of the Grand Duchy's expanding employment market this spring than workers commuting from neighbouring countries, Statec reported on Monday.

Contrary to usual employment patterns, the number of resident workers grew by 1% between April and June compared to the previous three-month period, more than the 0.8% increase among cross-border workers from Germany, France and Belgium, Luxembourg's national statistics agency said. Hiring among Luxembourg citizens grew twice as fast (0.9%) during the year's second quarter as among residents originally from other EU states or Great Britain (0.4%), Statec said.

Administration and other public services showed the strongest quarterly growth with a 1.6% increase compared to the year's first quarter, Statec said. Jobs at companies in finance and insurance increased by 1.1%, while construction employment rose by 1%, the statistics agency said.

The spring quarter saw more jobs added in each sector of the economy than during the previous three months, the first time there was such broad jobs growth since just before the Covid-19 pandemic reached Luxembourg in early 2020, Statec said.

Demand for workers created a record number of job vacancies in August as companies posted nearly 10,000 open jobs with the country's employment agency, Agence pour le développement de l'emploi (ADEM) reported last month.

Overall employment was up by 3.7% during the April-to-June period compared to the same time last year, "but this spectacular increase is due to the exceptional destruction of jobs during the confinement in the second quarter of 2020," Statec said. 

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