Sharp unemployment rise in December

(ADW) As of December 31 last year, the number of unemployed Luxembourg residents rose to 16,337 which means a rise to 6.6% for the entire month of December.

That's according to a report by the "Comité de conjoncture," an economic committee. Compared to the previous month this is a rise by 0.5% and 0.1% compared to December 2010. All this means that the unemployment rate has reached its highest level since the financial crisis began.

If the people benefitting from employment schemes (training etc) are taken into account, the total number of job seekers in December 2011 stood at 20,450 people

In late December 2011, 7,610 job seekers residing in Luxembourg received full unemployment benefit, an increase of 1.2% compared to December the year before.

At the same time, the number of jobs offered by ADEM (2,155 in December 2011) fell 4.9% compared to the same period in 2010.

Traditionally, a decline in employment and therefore an increase in the unemployment rate, is registered between the months of November and December, as contract work usually comes to an end.

The committee analysed 38 company demands wishing to benefit from the conditions of partial unemployment. In total 34 applications scored favourably. In the companies concerned, a total of 5,001 people are employed, and 2,971 of them will work reduced hours.