Research conducted by sociologist Fernand Fehlen and economist Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth at the University of Luxembourg has revealed that linguistic practices in the workplace vary depending on activity sectors and ever-growing linguistic demands.
The investigation carried out by the two researchers involved the analysis of the linguistic requests made in job offers in the Luxembourger Wort newspaper and on the website Jobs.lu. The analysis, conducted over a thirty year period of time (1984-2014), revealed the specific use of languages in different economic sectors and its evolution over time.
In 2014, nearly 72% of the job announcements made in the Luxembourger Wort requested one or more languages, whereas the same criteria in 1984 represented only 46%. Applications for trilingual candidates more than doubles, increading from 20% of ads in 1984 to 42% last year.
However, it would appear that this reflect not just an increase in need for trilingual candidates, but also an evolution in practices. In the past, it was not necessary to specify knowledge of Luxembourg's three official languages in job offers, with this language proficiency instead implied.
The Luxembourger Wort has retained its local roots, whilst the Jobs.lu website is moving into the international sphere, especially with regards to its financial and scientific sectors. This discrepancy was reportedly reflected in the divergent linguistic profiles of these two forms of media.
French is the most commonly requested language in job offers in the Luxembourger Wort, with 90.4% of its announcements making reference to the language or using it in the writing of the announcement, either by itself or in conjunction with additional languages. French represents the language of communication in the Luxembourg economy, subsequently sought by recruiters of all business sectors. Luxembourgish, for its part, is heavily involved in the public administration, transport and communications sectors. On the Jobs.lu website, however, 88.6% of job adverts made reference to English.
The full study can be downloaded on the publications platform of the University of Luxembourg, ORBilu, at http://hdl.handle.net/10993/21300
Graph by University of Luxembourg (Principal language spoken at work according to leader perceptions)
