However, too often it all comes down to a lack of qualified workers. For bakery “Beim Luss” in Clervaux, business is running quite smoothly, according to the owner Anne Allard.
“It’s summer, it’s the high season, we have tourists from abroad as well as local tourists. For the last four to five weeks we really can’t complain. Everything has been tipptopp.”
However, things could be going even better, but staff shortages are taking the wind out of the bakery’s sails.
“I have been searching for a baker for months and there simply is no one available, which is why I have to shut my bakery down twice a week. This leads me to lose clients or they visit us less frequently. My staff feels this pressure as they have to work harder.”
Anne Allard has been searching for qualified staff for months. Whether it’s through the radio, newspapers, social media, even across the border, Allard has advertised the role, in vain, as hardly anyone has reached out.
According to Allard, “the baking profession is hard. You have to work through the night. In my eyes, the new generation doesn’t want to work this way anymore. They want normal working hours, which makes it harder for us, especially in the north to find someone. It’s different to working closer to the capital, here we’re closer to France. So, it’s easier to hire someone from France, than get someone to come up all the way to Clervaux.”
Aside from this, the President of the Clervaux business union, Yves Brever shares other pressures businesses are facing:
“Municipalities and the state also draw away a lot of personnel, making it difficult to keep staff. It’s difficult to compete with their salaries. For a private business, it’s simply not feasible to offer the same kinds of pay.”
According to Brever, it is generally getting harder to open independent businesses.
“It’s definitely not easy to be self-employed. I can honestly say that often I end up working six days a week, but it’s something you have to come to terms with. It’s a challenge, but I still believe it’s wonderful to be your own boss.”
