Only 7% of Ukraine jobseekers successful so far
Just 7% of the Ukrainians who fled the war and registered with unemployment agency Adem found a job in Luxembourg, a senior official said on Wednesday, despite the fact that employment is on the rise.
Around 4,200 Ukrainian refugees are living under provisional protection status in Luxembourg, including children, young people and the elderly.
Of these, 910 people registered with Adem since March, and a total of 580 are still actively looking for jobs with Adem, the agency's Head of Employer Services Laurent Peusch told public broadcaster Radio 100,7.
Just 7% of those jobseekers at Adem had so far landed a position, Peusch said.
"If people have a certain level of education, it may be easier for them to get into a job that may not have been the one they did before. But they think: OK, I can move on from that job, and earn money here instead, I'm not a burden to my family, the state, my colleagues,” Peusch said.
A quarter of the refugees who found a job went on to work in the hospitality sector. Moreover, 10% of employed refugees work in commerce, and another 10% work in the public service, Peusch said.
Half of the Ukrainians who have fled the war and are actively seeking for jobs are aged between 30 and 44 years old. 70% of them are women, and one in five has a high school diploma, while 70% of them have a university degree.
“The biggest challenge in mediation is the language skills, which are mostly limited to English. Therefore, for many refugees, French courses are the first step to get into professional life,” Peusch said.
The number of immigrants from outside the EU has taken longer to reach pre-pandemic levels in Luxembourg than in the rest of Europe, with approximately 1,400 fewer arrivals last year than in 2019, according to data released by the EU's official statistics agency Eurostat on Tuesday.
In 2021, just under 3 million first residence permits were issued in the bloc to non-EU citizens, a number which has increased by 31% compared with 2020, reaching the pre-pandemic level observed in 2019, Eurostat said.
Nevertheless, the number of people in employment in Luxembourg grew by 3.6% last year, and has been continuously driven by non-EU and cross-border workers, statistics agency Statec said in April, as the labour market showed strong signs of continued recovery from the impact of the pandemic.
As of April 2022, Luxembourg's population growth returned to pre-pandemic levels, with the total number of inhabitants reaching more than 645,000 last year, mostly driven by immigration.
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