Luxembourg Is Looking For Its Future Talents In IT And Finance

In seven years, the number of telecommunications positions has jumped up to 25 % [1] in Luxembourg. This international hub on the cutting edge of technologies and infrastructures lacks profiles and doesn’t hesitate to attract talents from abroad.
Luxembourg, the ICT place to be

Luxembourg is the second financial center in the world, and the first in Europe with 144 banks, more than 3,800 investments funds, 320 insurances and reinsurances, 10 payments institutions, private equities, real estate promoters and so on. A real center for finance but also technologies since Luxembourg has 23 data centers, hundreds of consulting companies, but also startups and fintech nursery which collaborates with major banks and the Big Four firms.

With 8 certified « Tier IV » data centers, (the highest resistance standards to breakdown in the industry), the Grand-Duchy develops its state-of-the-art IT infrastructure to welcome and help companies to develop, thanks to lead-state initiatives such as the incubator Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, Luxinnovation and Digital Luxembourg.

In a few years, this aggressive TIC development politics raised Luxembourg to one of the most attractive countries for entrepreneurs, start-uppers, researchers, investors and innovators. The number of companies specialized in electronic and payment has tripled. Today, many Internet giants have settled in this country such as Amazon, ebay, PayPal, Rakuten, Skype or Microsoft. Google has just signed the installation of its sixth data center in Europe.

All these challenges induce IT profiles needs

According to Eurostat, 6 out to 10 Luxembourgish companies reported having difficulties hiring in techs. Luxembourg is the second European country affected by this shortage of candidates. However, numerous are the ambitious and challenging project possibilities in this ecosystem. At ARHS, a company specialised in applications development, the number of employees rose^from 5 to 1.000 in 4 years. At Talkwalker, focused on data analysis, the number of employees had increased from 3 to 150 employees in 8 years.

Other domain, such as business intelligence, development, testing, cybersecurity and fintech, are major developing axes in IT application and systems. The expansion of these activities generates recruitments for every IT competency. The most represented professions in the external part are Business analysts, Web, Mobile Developers and Project Managers, but the demand for Big data specialists gets bigger. Mastering technologies such as JAVA, BI, Open products and competencies in « Core Banking System » like Avaloq or TripleA is really wanted. For functional profiles, recruiters are looking for Regulation Consultants (PRIIPs, Solvency, CRS, etc.), Digital and SAP experts [2]

With the specialization per profession and a high demand in technicalities, it has become more and more difficult to recruit the best profiles. This is the reason why Luxembourgish HR prefer direct contacts with talents. They wish to accelerate recruitment processes, particularly during the next job party Digital Plug&Work Luxembourg, which will bring 40 Finance and IT companies together on November, the 28th. This kind of event enables pre- selected profiles from any technology field (development, infrastructures, business consulting…) to talk about open positions and projects with interested recruiters. In the space of one evening, work contracts are even offered to these international outsiders coming to bring their competencies to Luxembourg.

Today, ICT and Finance are the top foreign and cross-border workers employer in Luxembourg. They account for 75 % [3] of IT workers and 58 % [4] in Finance. And with good reasons, Luxembourg dispose of the highest international standards of living in terms of salaries, power of purchase and professional packages to attract foreign talents.

[1] Statec, Workers in Luxembourg per activity [1995 -2017] [2] Hays, Salary guide in Luxembourg, p. 38, 2017
[3] Eures & Pôle emploi, Professional opportunities in IT in Luxembourg, p.8, 2015
[4] Statec, tableau de bord du marché de l’emploi luxembourgeois, p. 9, June 2016

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4 comments
  1. In Tech salaries are too low in average in Luxembourg to be attractive to world wide tech talents. A good tech university is also lacking to Luxembourg.

  2. @Pierre Antoine: what would be a salary that would attract world wide tech talents to Luxembourg, in your opinion? Ballpark figure, if you may

  3. It is important to put things into perspective, an Intern in the silicon valley (many of which are coming from Europe) earns typically around 8k$/month.
    See : https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/02/what-interns-and-new-grads-really-get-paid-at-top-tech-companies/
    This taken into account, to be attractive on the international tech market, if we adjust to leaving cost, a compensation package should IMO not be lower than 90k€/year (ex 70k€ base salary + 20k€ bonuses) for entry level.

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