Luxembourg faces major recruitment challenges amid growing demand

The aid and care sector in Luxembourg, which offers hundreds of jobs, is facing significant recruitment challenges. With a high number of vacancies, a limited pool of graduates, and dwindling interest among young people, recruiters are struggling to fill positions. Compounding the issue, the reliance on cross-border workers has reached its limits. Our colleagues from RTL Infos spoke with industry professionals to better understand the difficulties they face.

The "silver economy" is thriving in Luxembourg, driven by a growing demand for care and assistance services aimed at improving the quality of life for the elderly and ensuring their independence for as long as possible. For instance, the Luxembourg Alzheimer's Association (ALA) has expanded from 280 employees at the end of 2019 to 410 today. Despite this growth, the organisation is still seeking around 40 part-time or full-time staff, according to Tom Petit, head of human resources. Across the country, the need for skilled nurses, caregivers, and above all their kindness has never been greater.

Delphine Lemelle, head of recruitment at the Hëllef Doheem foundation, summarised the situation succinctly: "We have more and more elderly people to care for, and fewer and fewer people are being trained." As Luxembourg's largest care and assistance network, Hëllef Doheem employs nearly 2,000 people and is currently looking to fill around 60 positions. Nurses and caregivers make up 90% of these vacancies.

© Emile Mentz / RTL

Hëllef Doheem is not alone in its recruitment struggles. The high demand for workers in the personal assistance and care sector was evident at the recent RTL Job Day held at the City Concorde in Bertrange, where numerous stands were occupied by organisations from the sector.

"There is a lot of pressure on the market to recruit," acknowledged a personnel manager at Zitha, a group that employs 800 people to manage care homes and provide home care services. His biggest challenge, he explained, is finding candidates with the right qualifications and language skills–specifically Luxembourgish, French, and German. "Very often, candidates have one but not the other," he noted. This issue is particularly acute for cross-border workers, who, once in the field, find themselves caring for Luxembourgish clients with dementia.

900 nurses needed

The 2024 law on the quality of services for the elderly underscores the importance of understanding residents' needs and mandates that workers achieve a B1 level in Luxembourgish within two years. To support this requirement, many employers provide language courses at their facilities, while others offer financial incentives of several hundred euros to employees who complete the training.

"Given the difficulty in recruiting caregivers due to the high number of vacancies, we need to demonstrate that we are an attractive employer," explained Petit of the ALA. Unlike nurses, who require a bachelor's degree, caregivers can be trained on the job. The ALA emphasises its training department, which Petit described as "open to external collaborations for enriching exchanges."

© Emile Mentz / RTL

However, qualified nurses remain the most sought-after recruits. This shortage is exacerbated by insufficient training capacity, as the National School of Healthcare produces too few graduates to meet demand. In the 2023-2024 academic year, only 68 individuals earned a Higher Technician Certificate in nursing, despite projections showing that more than 900 nursing positions will need to be filled over the next five years. COPAS, the umbrella organisation representing 58 care and assistance service providers in Luxembourg and employing a total of 13,000 people, highlighted this gap in November.

In response to the growing shortage of care workers, COPAS has established a round table to explore sustainable solutions.

The looming "wall" of mass retirements in healthcare

Recruiters in Luxembourg's healthcare sector are grappling with a multifaceted challenge, according to Marc Muller, an employer adviser for the health and socio-educational sector at the National Employment Agency (ADEM). "We're facing a mass problem, driven by several factors," he explained. These include the increasing demand fuelled by Luxembourg's aging population, insufficient training capacity within the country, limitations in recruiting cross-border workers, concerns over the recognition of qualifications from outside the EU, and a decline in interest among younger generations.

"Young people aren't necessarily drawn to these roles anymore," noted Lemelle of the Hëllef Doheem foundation. She pointed to the demanding nature of caregiving jobs, which require round-the-clock shifts and place significant psychological and physical strain on workers.

Despite the Ministry of Health's efforts to promote healthcare careers through the healthcareers.lu campaign–aimed at inspiring young people–the outlook remains grim. "The situation is only going to worsen," warned Muller. The 2019 Lair report, which assessed the state of healthcare professions in Luxembourg, forecast that between 2019 and 2034, 2,621 nurses and 1,440 caregivers would retire.

"What once seemed distant is now rapidly approaching," Muller remarked, describing the impending wave of retirements as a "wall." In a sector already struggling with recruitment challenges for decades, the scale of upcoming retirements threatens to exacerbate existing shortages.

Read also:

Umbrella organisation for care providers: COPAS calls for urgent action to address nursing shortage in Luxembourg

Nurses and caregivers: Care sector faces severe staff shortage in Luxembourg

National Association of Nurses: Fewer and fewer people enrol to become nurses