According to the latest count from Luxembourg’s Ministry of Justice and STATEC, 317 companies were declared bankrupt and 31 were liquidated during the first quarter of 2024.

Bankruptcies

The number of bankruptcies was up 15% compared to the first quarter of 2023 (317 compared to 276 judgments). According to initial STATEC estimates, salaried job losses linked to bankruptcies amounted to 1,239, compared to 768 in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of more than 60%. Similar levels in terms of job losses in a single quarter were only noted in 2011.

The construction sector has been the one most impacted by bankruptcies since 2023. This situation was accentuated in the first quarter of 2024, both in absolute number (with 71 bankruptcies, or up 18% compared to the 1st quarter of 2023), as well as in terms of loss of salaried jobs. These are estimated at around 660, or 244% more than in the first quarter of 2023. The construction sector thus accounts for more than half of the total loss of salaried jobs linked to bankruptcies.

The commerce sector recorded 47 bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2024. This number decreased compared to the 1st quarter of 2023 (47 compared to 55), but the losses of salaried jobs have more than tripled (133 compared to 44).

There were also 32 bankruptcies in the hospitality (HORECA) sector (down 11% compared to the first quarter of 2023), the first provisional data showing around 194 losses of salaried employment positions (up 46%).

Liquidations

Liquidations decreased sharply in the first quarter of 2024, their number having been divided by ten compared to the first quarter of 2023, STATEC noted. The number of liquidations of holding companies and investment funds has collapsed, while these previously made up the majority of liquidations.

These topics can be consulted in the STATEC “Bankruptcies and Liquidations” dashboard, published on Wednesday 17 April 2024. Bankruptcy statistics are based on the record of judicial decisions, taken from the Commercial Register and dating from Monday 15 April 2024 for most recent data.

The number of bankruptcies is calculated as the sum of “openings” or “reopenings”, after the deduction of reported bankruptcies, coming from the legal procedure “judgments and declaratory orders of bankruptcy”. These figures are provisional.