Only 4.7% of working people in Luxembourg were overqualified in 2024, meaning they held a job that did not require their level of higher education. That’s the lowest rate in the European Union, says statistics bureau Eurostat. Photo: Shutterstock

Only 4.7% of working people in Luxembourg were overqualified in 2024, meaning they held a job that did not require their level of higher education. That’s the lowest rate in the European Union, says statistics bureau Eurostat. Photo: Shutterstock

In 2024, the EU had a record employment rate of 75.8% among 20-64 year-olds, says statistics bureau Eurostat. Whilst Luxembourg remains slightly below this average, it stands out for its remarkably low rate of overqualification, the lowest in the EU. Though almost a quarter of Europeans hold a job below their level of education, only 4.7% of working people in Luxembourg are in this situation.

The year 2024 marks a record for employment in the European Union. With an employment rate of 75.8% among 20-64 year-olds--or 197.6m people in work--the level has never been so high since statistical monitoring began in 2009, said data published by Eurostat.

This rate has risen by 0.5 percentage points compared to 2023, and by 1.2 points compared to 2022. The employment champions remain the Netherlands (83.5%), Malta (83%) and the Czech Republic (82.3%). On the other hand, Italy (67.1%), Greece (69.3%) and Romania (69.5%) bring up the rear.

Luxembourg is slightly behind the European average, with a rate of 74.2%. The grand duchy remains behind its neighbours Germany (81.3%) and France (75.1%), but ahead of Belgium (72.3%).

Women are more overqualified than men

Another key indicator: overqualification. In 2024, 21.5% of working Europeans with a higher education qualification held a job that did not require this level of education. It’s a trend that is more marked among women (22%) than men (20.5%).

With an overqualification rate limited to 4.7%, Luxembourg stands out as the best performer in the EU, ahead of Croatia (12.6%) and the Czech Republic (12.8%). At the other end of the scale, Spain (35%), Greece (33%) and Cyprus (28.2%) have the highest rates of overqualification.

In 21 of the EU’s 27 member states, women are more affected by overqualification than men, with marked differences in Italy (7.7 pp), Slovakia (6.4 pp) and Malta (5.3 pp). Luxembourg is no exception, where 5.1% of women hold a job below their level of qualification, compared with 4.3% of men. Conversely, in six EU countries, men are more concerned, notably in Lithuania (5.2 pp), Latvia (2.6 pp) and Estonia (2.5 pp).

This article was originally published in .

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