Luxembourg: internationalism and workforce

One relevant characteristic of Luxembourg economy is a world-wide face of its labour force. Luxembourg job market really possesses a worldwide and multicultural working environment.

Internationalism in Luxembourg

Half of Luxembourg population are non-nationals. This number is equivalent to 66% in the capital. 172 nationalities cover Luxembourg workforce. In the country, the international atmosphere is felt and constitutes a great advantage. English language is considered as the business language even if an important part of the work force’ s mother tongue is not English.

Several public gardens or open-air swimming pools are the theatre of a mixing of different languages like, French, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, English, Chinese, Polish and other languages. State-of-the-arts playgrounds gather children from different parts of the planet, and they play together.

As an example, the linguistic asset is particularly available in the country’s financial services. In Luxembourg, some leading institutions appreciate to reveal all the multiculturalism’s challenges and positive points concerning their teams.

An overview of the job market in Luxembourg

The Luxembourg labour market is characterized by an international and multicultural working environment. Indeed, the country can be proud of an exceptional rate of foreign and multilingual labour, a predominance of the tertiary sector and an unemployment rate below the European average.

The reasons of this situation is a political and socio-economic stability of the country, but also the presence of dynamic and innovative companies. This fact settles the Grand duchy as an ideal environment for employment. Luxembourg has set up an economic policy favourable to the development of new activities in a modern, flexible, innovative and employment-friendly legal framework.

In Luxembourg, it is important to note that there is a strong tradition of social peace. In fact, social problems are usually resolved within the framework of a broad consultation between the social partners, both at the company and national level.
It is the responsibility of the committee to manage closely the changes in the economic and cyclical situation of the country and of the labour market.

An international and dynamic job market

Salaried employment in Luxembourg consists of three major groups of workers:
• Resident employees of Luxembourg nationality;
• Foreign resident employees;
• Border workers residing more particularly in Germany, Belgium and France.

Today, 70% of Luxembourg’s workforce does not have the Luxembourg nationality. There are also some 10,000 international agents and civil servants. This foreign population is originating in France, Germany or Belgium, and the inhabitants of more than 170 countries, all contribute to create Luxembourg as a multilingual and multicultural country and form a dynamic labour market.
In 2016, Luxembourg has nearly 576 249 inhabitants, of which about 269 175 foreigners. The most numerous are the Portuguese (93 124), the French (41 671), the Italian (20 276) and the Belgian population (19406). Foreigners from non-EU countries are numbering 39 669.

An increasing employment demand

Luxembourg has a continuous increase in the population due, mainly, to net immigration, the share of foreigners rising to 46.7%.
The employment demand cannot be met by the national labour force and the immigrant workers. The number of occupied jobs, starting from 1985, by frontier workers living in one of the neighboring countries (Germany, Belgium, France), keeps growing.
Some 181490 border workers worked in Luxembourg. With 50% of the workforce, France provides the largest contingent, then Belgium (25%) and Germany (25%). 42% of the domestic waged employment is then occupied by border workers.

Labour force sectors

On September the 30th, 2016, the employment situation was:
• Total Domestic employment: 427 044, including 181 490 border workers;
• Private sector employees: 372 040 including 176 051 border workers;
• Officials: 28 888, including 1 037 border workers;
• Non-employees: 25 356, including 4 258 border workers.

Several world-class industrial groups are located in Luxembourg (Arcelor Mittal, Goodyear, Guardian, Dupont…).

In the field of information and communication technologies, and the field of media, several communication giants operate from Luxembourg: RTL Group, the first European television and radio broadcaster, and its first supplier communication and broadcasting services through a fleet of 40 satellites.

Skype, ITunes, PayPal, EBay or even Amazon.com are multinationals of the digital economy present in the Grand duchy.
The financial place of Luxembourg plays a leading role at an international level and many European institutions have settled in the Luxembourg capital.

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