The number of unemployed higher-education graduates registered with Adem rose 13% in 2025, the strongest increase of any education group, according to a new Chamber of Employees analysis.
Graduates accounted for 31% of registered jobseekers last year, compared with 19% in 2018. The number of graduate jobseekers rose by an average of 10% a year over that period.
Separately, CSL found sharp increases in jobseekers in several white-collar occupations. Between 2024 and 2025, their numbers rose 29% in accounting and management and 25% in IT and telecommunications. The occupational figures were not broken down by education level.
Vacancies reported to Adem moved in the opposite direction in those occupations, falling 26% in accounting and management and 6% in IT and telecommunications over the same period.
“Employment opportunities for higher-education jobseekers therefore appear to be declining,” the Chamber of Employees, or CSL, said in its July EcoNews report.
A narrower fit
Morgan Philips found a different pressure on the employer side of the market. Its 2026 analysis of finance recruitment in Luxembourg’s industrial and commercial companies identified some of the greatest hiring difficulties in experienced and specialised positions.
Heads of internal audit, consolidation specialists and experienced general accountants were among the hardest profiles to recruit, alongside senior controlling and finance positions. The recruiter found that the challenge had shifted away from purely transactional roles towards people combining technical expertise with broader business and strategic capabilities.
“Technical competence remains essential, but it is no longer sufficient,” Morgan Philips said.
Automation was reducing demand for highly repetitive finance work while increasing demand for professionals able to supervise systems, interpret data and lead transformation. For senior finance roles, Morgan Philips also highlighted leadership, stakeholder management and the ability to influence decisions beyond the finance function.
That illustrates how recruitment difficulties can persist even when more highly educated people are looking for work: some vacancies require narrower combinations of experience and skills than a degree alone provides.
Longer out of work
CSL’s education data also showed that unemployment was becoming more persistent among people with higher education.
Between 2024 and 2025, the number of graduates registered with Adem for at least a year rose 18% among those under 30, 19% among 30- to 44-year-olds and 24% among people aged 45 or over.
Graduates still had a lower unemployment rate than less-qualified workers. The rate among graduates was 5.4% in 2025, compared with 10.9% among people with lower-secondary education or less.
But graduates were the only education group whose unemployment rate worsened between 2024 and 2025, rising by 0.6 percentage points.
The longer-term gap was also visible among residents aged 30 to 64. Between 2018 and 2025, highly qualified jobseekers in that age group increased by an average of 11% a year, compared with 6% growth in both the highly qualified resident population and resident employment.
Highly educated people were therefore entering unemployment faster than either the corresponding population or employment base was growing.
Beyond the degree
CSL cautioned against assuming that every recruitment difficulty resulted from workers having the wrong skills. A lack of appropriately trained people or a mismatch in skills could be part of the explanation, but working hours, pay, contract type and mobility could also affect whether vacancies attracted suitable candidates.
In finance, Morgan Philips found employers putting greater weight on combinations of technical expertise, experience, data skills and broader business capabilities.
More graduates are looking for work, while some finance employers are still struggling to find particular combinations of experience and skills.
For graduate jobseekers, the distinction matters. A rising supply of highly educated people does not by itself mean their qualifications, experience and skills correspond to the particular jobs employers are trying to fill.
