Refugees from Ukraine are employed in HoResCa, commerce and public service — but only 7% of them were able to find work

Refugees from Ukraine continue to arrive in Luxembourg. There are now about 4200 refugees in the country. However, only 910 refugees have registered on the ADEM jobseeking portal since May. 580 of them are still looking for work. And only 330 (~7%) were able to find it.

A quarter of all job seekers work in the HoResCa sector. Another 10% are employed in commerce and in public service.

Refugees aged 30 to 44 are looking for work most often. They constitute more than 50% of all job seekers in the group. 7 out of 10 are women. And 70% of them have higher education.

Why can’t educated professionals find jobs? It’s mostly because they don’t know the necessary language. The most common language for working in the Grand Duchy is French. English, which refugees are usually familiar with, is nowhere near as popular.

Laurent Peusch, ADEM’s head of employer support, says that for most of these people, learning French would be a full first step towards a career in Luxembourg.

Whether the state is going to somehow support adults in learning new languages is still unknown. But classes with in-depth French, German and Luxembourgish studies have already opened for Ukrainian children in numerous Luxembourg schools.