Unemployment down year-on-year as vacancies soar

The number of jobseekers fell by 15% at the end of July compared with the same month last year, as thousands of posts across Luxembourg remain vacant, according to the latest figures from the country’s unemployment agency on Monday.  

More than 14,250 people are now on Adem’s jobseekers’ list and the unemployment rate stands at 4.7%, the agency said in a statement.

There are just over 13,000 jobs available via the agency, a slight drop from June’s record-high 13,600 open positions.

Around 2,250 people signed up in July - 164 of whom were refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine, the agency said. Just 7% of the Ukrainians who have fled their homeland and registered with Adem have found a job in Luxembourg, a senior official said earlier this month. 

A quarter of the refugees who found a job work in the hospitality sector, 10% in commerce and another 10% in the public service, Adem’s Laurent Peusch said. 

Luxembourg businesses and EU institutions have described struggling to find skilled workers for years, particularly in the financial sector, according to a survey conducted last year by Deloitte. There is a shortage of skilled workers in almost all sectors of the economy, previous ADEM figures show.

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