The unemployment rate fell below the 5% threshold in January 2022 and has remained almost stable in Luxembourg since then, fluctuating between 4.7% and 4.9% depending on the month. In January 2023, it reached 4.9% again, as was the case in November 2022 and 12 months earlier, in January 2022. It thus increased by 0.1 percentage points .

The number of resident jobseekers stood at 15,801 on 31 January 2023, according to the latest figures from Adem. This is 331 people more than a year earlier. The increase impacted all periods of unemployment, except for those of “long duration,” i.e., more than 12 months.

“The employment market always reacts to the economy with a few months’ delay, not all sectors are concerned, but some are actually hiring less,” explained , director of Adem, on Monday 20 February. “As a result, people on fixed-term contracts, for example, are not being renewed.”

She added: “The good news is that in January we had a huge number of declarations of job vacancies [4,266, i.e., an increase of 4.5% compared to January 2022]. So there are almost 11,000 job offers on our site, which is not nothing, but some profiles do not meet the right offers.”

4,266 new vacancies

“What we are noticing, in addition to this slight rise in unemployment, is an increase in registrations with Adem, which is relatively new. Now, in January, we are still seeing an increase in registrations, but we will see if this increase is confirmed in the coming months or not,” said Schlesser. Indeed, there are 2,893 new registrations, +22.6% in twelve months. 90 of them concern beneficiaries of temporary protection, a status granted to refugees coming from Ukraine.

“We now have 661 Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection registered with Adem,” adds the director. “At the peak, there were about 1,500 registered, but it is difficult to know whether those who are no longer at Adem have all found a job, returned to Ukraine or otherwise.”

For their part, employers have declared 4,266 vacancies in the Adem. 4.5% more than in January 2022. The number of available positions stands at 10,988, up 2% in one year.

Compared to last December, there were 711 more jobseekers registered, but also 1,587 more jobs advertised.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.