Looking upon a long lasting political and socio-economic stability, Luxembourg is renowned for its high degree of adaptability to economic change with a highly flexible and responsive government and a business-orientated regulatory framework that incites investments and employment.
The Luxembourg job market is characterised by an impressive increase in employment during the past years, an international and multicultural working environment, an exceptional level of foreign and multilingual workforce, predominance of the service sector and an unemployment rate lower than the European average.
An exceptionally high level of foreign workforce
As a small country, Luxembourg has always turned itself towards the world and has incorporated the know-how of not only its residents but also of cross-border commuters and immigrants coming from all over the world in the country’s development.
Today, around 70% of the country’s workforce is composed of immigrants or cross-border employees. There are also some 10,000 international officials and civil servants. Since the need for workers cannot be met by domestic labour and migrant workers, the number of posts held by cross-border employees residing in one of the neighbouring countries (Germany, Belgium and France) has been constantly increasing since 1985. Some 170,000 cross-border employees are working in Luxembourg. Representing 50% of that workforce, France provides the largest contingent, followed by Belgium (25%) and Germany (25%). 45% of domestic employment is thus accounted for by cross-border workers.
But Luxembourg’s workforce is not only international, it is also highly qualified. In its 2015 report on human capital, the World Economic Forum (WEF) placed Luxembourg at the first position because of its high degree of skilled workers among the overall active population.
Great language skills
The linguistic situation in Luxembourg is complex. The three languages used in daily life are Luxembourgish, German and French. In the world of work, depending on the origin or nationality of the company, the working language may be Luxembourgish, French, German, English or even Portuguese. French and English predominate, especially in the services sector.
The majority of Luxembourgers speak at least three languages, which is a clear advantage over other countries.
Key sectors
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a long industrial tradition. The steel industry, which made the wealth of the country in the late 19th and early 20th century, has been successfully transformed. By the merge of Arcelor with Mittal Steel in 2006, creating the ArcelorMittal group, Luxembourg became home of the world's number one steel producer. Since the middle of last century, industrial diversification is a permanent economic policy objective. It has promoted the emergence of other industrial sectors, such as the materials industries (DuPont de Nemours, Guardian Glass) and the automotive components industry (Goodyear, Delphi). The industry sector still accounts for some 10% in value added (GDP) and employment in the country.
Nowadays, the services sector, especially the financial sector, is the main driving force behind the Grand Duchy's economy. Even so, the Grand Duchy's authorities are aware of the risk of the economy being over-dependent on any one sector, and have adopted a policy of diversification of the country's economic fabric. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), logistics, bio- and eco-technologies, space technologies, audiovisual productions as well as a vital construction, crafts and trade sector are today at the heart of Luxembourg’s economy.