Credit: ADEM

On Thursday 16 January 2025, the ADEM employment agency and the Digital Learning Hub hosted their first joint “Jobday”, dedicated entirely to IT professions, bringing together 32 companies from diverse sectors, including IT, finance, industry, commerce and technology, in search of new talent in the field of information technology.

Isabelle Schlesser, Director of ADEM, highlighted the participation of two German companies, symbolising the cross-regional cooperation established between ADEM and the Trier Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit).

As reported by ADEM, students from Luxembourg, along with 900 jobseekers, were invited to participate and had the opportunity to engage directly with recruiters. The event was also open to anyone seeking new professional opportunities in the IT sector. In total, over 1,000 attendees were able to meet with companies. The sought-after profiles spanned a wide range of roles, including web developer, data analyst, network administrator, IT support specialist, IT architect, full-stack developer, SAP developer and more.

Luxembourg's Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch, emphasised: "It is essential to train a skilled workforce capable of meeting the challenges of a rapidly transforming digital labour market and to offer flexible and tailored training that aligns with the market’s evolving needs. In the field of continuing vocational training, the Digital Learning Hub and 42 Luxembourg now represent key milestones in preparing our society for the digital age. Equally important is the development of digital skills among our students from the very beginning of their education. With the introduction of Coding in primary education and Digital Sciences in secondary education, we are positioning Luxembourg as a pioneer in this area."

ADEM said that the Digital Learning Hub, which opened in 2022, has already organised 969 training sessions and recorded over 8,612 enrolments. Its flagship programme, 42 Luxembourg, continues to grow in popularity, with an increasing number of enrolments and a current cohort of 258 students.

Over the past decade, IT professions experienced significant growth, with the number of job vacancies nearly tripling between 2015 and 2022. However, since 2022, this trend has reversed. The number of IT job vacancies reported to ADEM dropped by 26% between 2022 and 2023, followed by an estimated further decline of 15% between 2023 and 2024. This decrease affects critical fields such as IT development, consultancy, IT architecture, and cybersecurity. These professions, which had been major contributors to the dynamism of the IT sector in Luxembourg, have also seen a reduction in recruitment and job creation, particularly in programming and consultancy sectors, ADEM reported.

According to Georges Mischo, Minister of Labour: "This development raises important questions, especially as these professions are among those with the most severe shortages since 2023. This market shift is a cause for concern. ADEM is actively working with sector experts to better understand this trend and to define concrete actions to address it."

Isabelle Schlesser reminded that: "For ADEM, beyond initiatives like these, which allow employers and candidates to meet for a day and discuss their respective expectations, one of ADEM's key missions in the labour market is to better align job demand with job supply. To succeed in this, training for jobseekers remains one of the essential tools. In 2024, ADEM recorded over 10,000 total training participations, around 30% of which were linked to digital and/or ICT specialist training."