France will have borne a further €145.9m in unemployment costs for former Luxembourg employees in 2025. This cost is set to shift largely to the Grand Duchy following European reform, although the change may not take effect until 2033. In the meantime, the bill continues to rise. According to the 2025 report ‘Cross-border benefit recipients: numbers, expenditure and reimbursements’ published by Unédic in July, 8,426 people who had worked in Luxembourg received benefits in France, compared with 8,840 in 2024. Their number fell by 4.7% in one year.
This setback did not lighten the final burden. Expenditure fell from €178.1m to €174m, but payouts fell even more sharply, from €35.1m to €28.1m, a drop of nearly 20%. As a result, the net cost rose by 2% year-on-year, even though 414 fewer people received benefits. The €28.1m represents compensation paid by Luxembourg to France for part of the unemployment benefits paid to former cross-border workers. Under the current system, when a French resident loses their job entirely in Luxembourg, France pays them benefits, calculated on the basis of their former Luxembourg salary. Luxembourg, which collected the contributions during the period of employment, then reimburses Unédic for part of these costs.
Reimbursements covered only 16% of expenditure in 2025, compared with nearly 20% a year earlier. At the same time, the average net monthly payment rose from €1,456 to €1,479. It stood at €1,617 for claimants who had not been in employment whilst receiving benefits, compared with €1,087 for those who had returned to work.
Higher bill on the Swiss side
However, this figure shows only one side of the cross-border economy. According to the Banque de France’s 2025 annual report on the balance of payments, wages and salaries received from abroad by employees residing in France totalled €39.1bn. After deducting the €2.2bn paid to non-residents working in France, the surplus relating to cross-border workers stands at €36.9bn, compared with €35.2bn in 2024.
This figure is almost double France’s tourism surplus, which is set to be limited to €20bn in 2025. Cross-border workers therefore place a burden on the unemployment insurance system when they lose their jobs, but at the same time their wages constitute a major source of revenue for the French economy.
A comparison with Switzerland reveals a significantly higher cost. In 2025, Unédic spent €846.9m on 27,785 claimants who had worked in Switzerland. After reimbursements totalling €228.7m, the net cost amounted to €618.2m, compared with €145.9m for Luxembourg.
A distribution set to change
The average net monthly benefit amounts to €2,132 for former employees in Switzerland, compared with €1,479 for those in Luxembourg. When calculated per beneficiary, the average annual expenditure is approximately €30,480 on the Swiss side and €20,650 on the Luxembourg side.
The breakdown of this bill is now set to change. In July, the European Parliament finally adopted, by 511 votes to 87, with 61 abstentions, the reform of the regulation coordinating social security systems. Where a cross-border worker has worked or been insured for at least 22 consecutive weeks in their country of employment, that country will be responsible for paying their unemployment benefits. France will, however, continue to provide benefits to those who do not meet this condition.
For Luxembourg, which employs more than 230,000 cross-border workers, this is a major change. The Minister for Labour, 
The Grand Duchy has been granted an exceptional transitional period. Following the standard two-year period, it may be granted a further three years, and then a further two years in the event of an extension. The reform may therefore not be fully implemented in Luxembourg until 2033. Ultimately, a large proportion of the €145.9m currently borne by France should therefore be borne directly by the Grand Duchy.
