Mercato del lavoro: carenza di talenti o disoccupazione record: qual è la vera crisi in Lussemburgo?

I’ve been unemployed since August, and despite having a strong CV, I’ve mostly only gotten interviews through consultancy firms or via friends’ referrals. Almost all consultancy firms ghosted me after a while—I suspect their HR teams just collect CVs to fill quotas, or these “positions” aren’t real.

A funny (or frustrating) story: an HR lady from a consultancy company interviewed me and said she’d arrange a call with her manager within two weeks… and then completely ghosted me. When I asked about the status, she didn’t reply. Later, I saw the same job posting and applied with a different email. She emailed me to interview again. I explained we’d already interviewed, and of course, she ghosted me again. 🙂

On top of that, many companies seem to try hiring at salaries below the market average. Some of my former colleagues ended up taking roles with significantly lower pay than their previous jobs.

Another challenge is the extremely high expectations for experience. Almost every role I’ve interviewed for expects candidates to have full knowledge of every requirement. Language skills are also a major hurdle, since mastering professional-level French or German can take years. For example, a project manager position might expect familiarity with APIs (XML, RESTful), Azure, CRM systems, SQL, Python, and even certain banking software. But how can anyone gain hands-on experience with all of this without actually working in that environment? Completing an online course often isn’t enough, because employers want current, practical experience.

It’s frustrating, and I see many talented and intelligent people leaving Luxembourg due to the limited job market and current situation.