Luxembourg Salary Increase Show Slowdown

On Thursday 11 January 2024, Luxembourg's national statistics office (Statec) published a report on salaried employment, shown that salaries increased by 0.2% in the third quarter of 2023 and 1.8% over the past twelve months.

According to Statec, the slowdown in the growth of salaried employment continues in the third quarter of 2023: the salaried employment market only saw a slight increase of +0.2% compared to the second quarter of 2023. In annual variation, the progression has summer of +1.8% (compared to +2.5% in the second quarter of 2023). It is the activities of commerce, transport, catering and accommodation (+0.4%) as well as administration and other public services (+0.9%) which show the most significant quarterly increases compared to the second quarter 2023. For four sectors of activity (industry, construction, information and communication and for specialised activities and support services) a drop in the number of employees is observed in the third quarter of 2023.

Financial and insurance activities (+3.2% over one year), as well as administration and other public services (+3.3% over one year), are the most dynamic branches in annual comparison. For financial and insurance activities, favourable development comes from the activities of banking establishments. As for the second sector, it is the central administration services which recorded the most significant growth. In annual variation, the construction sector experienced a significant drop of -1.4% in the number of employees. Residential and non-residential building construction activities recorded the greatest job loss. This sector experienced three consecutive negative quarterly variations in 2023.

In the third quarter of 2023 the change in the number of employees was similar for cross-border workers and residents (+0.2% compared to the second quarter). For Belgian cross-border employees, Statec observed stagnation in the number of employees for two quarters. In annual variation, the number of non-EU resident employees increased by 11.4% (+1.5% for Luxembourg residents). Note that the number of community resident employees fell by -0.7% in the third quarter of 2023.