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Talent shortage or record unemployment: Which is the real crisis in Luxembourg?

The job market in Luxembourg is a complex one. Cross-border workers make up 47% of Luxembourg’s workforce, while residents and permanent residents make up the other 53% – one in four of which are citizens. The makeup is further complicated by a high number of locals who study or reside overseas.

One thing that’s clear is that job seeking and unemployment remain an evergreen hot topic in the Grand Duchy, with several talking points dominating recent headlines: While touted as a talent hub, and one that aims to fill 335,000 positions by 2040, the employment rate in Luxembourg ranked among the lowest in Europe last year. The country reported a sharp drop in employment at the end of 2025, even as quality of work fell to a record low.

The Luxembourgish government has introduced a new recruitment strategy to attract international talent. Meanwhile, the latest figures count more than 21,000 job seekers in Luxembourg, the highest since March 2021.

Yet hiring in Luxembourg shouldn’t be hard, according to Breanna Schaefer-O’Reilly, Country Manager for Select HR. “We have so much talent here,” she said. “But I think a lot of people are overlooked or not considered because they don’t fit into this fine, small, little box that companies are looking for.”

Also today

• Luxembourg is facing a paradoxical job market at the moment — with more than 21,000 people currently out of work, the highest figure since 2021, and employers claiming they cannot find the right talent
• A coalition of environmental and health groups have filed suit against the Trump administration’s repeal of a key scientific finding that underpinned federal climate regulations
• The police are urging caution as two scams are doing the rounds: The first involves criminals posing as officers on messaging platforms, and the second unscrupulous trade offers for cleaning and renovation work
• Ukrainian officials will boycott the Paralympic Winter Games, Kyiv announced, after the International Paralympic Committee announced they would allow Russian athletes to compete under their national flag.
• A 59-year-old woman has died early this afternoon following a traffic accident in the German town of Konz, just across the border from Luxembourg.
• US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has urged the International Energy Agency to abandon its work on climate change and focus instead on its founding mission.

On air

It’s been a topsy-turvy couple of days with the DJ’s flitting all over the place to cover the holidays. Tom is back on Drive tonight though, to keep the rudder true.

Figure of the day

The US Embassy in Luxembourg has prompted widespread mockery on social media, receiving 10,000 reactions to their social media post calling Donald Trump the “Greatest President in History.”

• As of 18 February 2026, the Facebook post had received nearly 10,000 reactions. Of those, 8,911 were laughing emojis, while 219 users responded with an angry emoji. By contrast, approximately 526 users expressed approval by liking the post, and 119 reacted with a heart.
• The comment section, which has surpassed 3,000 entries, reflects a range of opinions. Some users openly criticised the post and expressed disagreement with Trump’s policies, while others adopted a more humorous tone, with a number describing it as the “best satirical post” they had ever seen. A smaller subset of commenters offered positive remarks.

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