[News] Luxembourgish progresses in workplace, English still in high demand

[Angel of Death]

French was the most po[CENSORED]r language in job vacancies in 2019, according to a University of Luxembourg study, while English was still most sought after in finance.   Luxembourg’s multilingualism is reflected in the country’s job offers. The latest update of the university's "Languages in job vacancies in Luxembourg (1984-2019)" study confirms this.  It concludes that in 2019, French was the most requested language in job offers, with 76.3% of advertisements explicitly asking for knowledge (whether or not the offer was associated with another language). Next came German, followed closely by Luxembourgish (for 68.2% and 67.3% of announcements, respectively). Demand for Luxembourgish grew by 17% over five years. Majority English in finance  “The progression of Luxembourgish as a requested language was very significant between 2014 and 2019 (from 50.3% of announcements in 2014 to 67.3% in 2019),” the study’s authors, Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth and Fernand Fehlen, explain. Luxembourgish also appeared in first place for the desired languages in 9.8% of ads in 2019, compared to 1.4% in 1984.  These data should be qualified, however, as the study is based on a sample of 8,340 job vacancies published by Luxemburger Wort alone, “which publishes few vacancies for the sectors with the most demand in English (finance, international sector, etc.)". Therefore, English is only requested in 16.9% of the advertisements studied. Differences according to activity sectors  In 2014, in the previous version of the study, the authors looked at the vacancies published on the Jobs.lu website, where 88.6% of the ads published referred to English. “In the professional world, depending on the origin or nationality of a company, the working language can be Luxembourgish, French, German, English, and even Portuguese (especially in the construction sectors, hotels and cleaning),” confirmed Adem in an August 2020 publication.  Luxembourgish is mainly required in transport and communications, as well as in public administration, while the financial sector only requires this language in 20% of cases.  This disparity is also felt in the demand for languages in specialised institutes. The Luxembourg branch of Berlitz confirms that English is in the lead, with 31% of requests, followed by French (30%), Luxembourgish (15%) and German (14%).  This article was originally published in French on Paperjam and has been translated and edited for Delano.