Foreign nationals living in Luxembourg and cross-border workers made up more than 80 per cent of people recruited for jobs in the Grand Duchy between January last year and the same date this year.

According to figures released by the Inspection Générale de la Sécurité Sociale (IGSS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Work and Employment, the number of people in employment in Luxembourg at the end of January 2017 was 3% higher than in January 2016, taking the total number of workers up from 390,630 to 402,340.

Cross-border workers, foreigners

During that period, 40.9 per cent of all people recruited on non-interim contracts were cross-border workers, 39.5 per cent were Luxembourg residents of foreign nationality and 19.7 per cent were Luxembourgish citizens.

Of the 101,590 contracts that were ended over the period, 40.1 per cent were cross-border workers, 21.3% per cent Luxembourgish nationals and 38.6 per cent foreign nationals living in Luxembourg.

Calculating the difference between recruitment and end of contract – or net job creations – the situation is different for people of Luxembourgish nationality compared with those of foreign nationality or cross-border workers.

While the net job creation for foreign nationals was 5,900 and for cross-border workers 5,830, it was close to zero for Luxembourgish nationals.

This is partially due to more people who leave due to retirement being of Luxembourgish nationality.

Compared with cross-border workers, around 700 more Luxembourgish nationals left their jobs to go into retirement, while compared with foreign nationals, the figure was closer to 1,000.

The main sector where Luxembourgish citizens were recruited was in public administration (85 per cent).

For foreign nationals, the main sector was food and hospitality, and for cross-border workers it was the manufacturing industry.

Sectors recruiting

The sectors recruiting the most staff were trade, car and motorcycle repairs, administrative and support roles and specialist scientific and technical positions.

The highest number of contracts being terminated, however, were also found in these sectors.

The areas that made the lowest number of recruitments over 2016-17 were IT and communications, the manufacturing industry and public administration.

Men and women

Of the 114,130 non-interim recruitments made between January 2016 and January 2017, 53.9 per cent were men and 46.1 per cent women.

The main sectors that recruited women were health and social care, and administration and support.

The industries recruiting the highest percentage of men were construction, trade and automotive and motorcycle repairs.

Financial and insurance functions were identical in recruitment percentage among men and women.

Recruitment

Between January 2016 and January 2017, 140,950 people were recruited in Luxembourg, and 129,240 people came to the end of their contract – 6,000 of which due to retirement.

Interim work made up one-fifth of the labour market.