In the United States, the country where the phenomenon was born, 48 million employees resigned in 2021 and around 4 million per month in 2022, according to several international sources. What has been called “big resignation” consists of leaving your employer abruptly, without the latter being able to see the blow coming. Until recently, Europe had escaped this trend, but several countries are exceptions, including France with an increase in CDI terminations of 20% in 2021, Europe 1 explained here.
Luxembourg is considered to be a country at risk. Notably because its job market is tight, with strong demand. But also because he is handicapped by the price of housing, transport problems…
One in four Luxembourg employees also considers the probability of changing employers within 12 months to be “very” or “extremely high”, according to a PwC study.
covered by several media
and conducted with approximately 1,200 employees per state. Which quite simply makes it the European country most affected by these desires elsewhere.
Adem, for its part, does not have figures on this subject.
A matter of salary
The recruitment federation FR2S (Federation for Recruitment, Search & Selection) notes for its part that “employees leave their job for a yes or a no”. Its co-president, Nathalie Delebois, details: “If they don’t get the salary increase they want, they will see if the grass is greener elsewhere.”
The positions sought by companies “are not creations, but replacements”. She explains this movement of departures and arrivals of employees by a labor market “more dynamic than in other European countries” and largely favorable to candidates.
According to the latest figures from Adem
Luxembourg had 13,599 vacancies at the end of June, a record number, up 39.7% in one year.
In search of flexibility
This market dynamic and the position of strength occupied by employees in relation to employers therefore leads to the desire to improve one’s wage income. Especially since inflation impoverishes many workers.
Countries where wage indexation is automatic according to the evolution of various indices, such as Belgium, seem less affected by the “great resignation”. the
index report
does it push Luxembourg employees to look for a better salary elsewhere? No, according to Nathalie Delebois. “Candidates want a higher salary, but if there is no index (at the national level, editor’s note), it concerns all employers.” Even if salary increases may be more or less frequent from one company to another, some having collective agreements which provide for increases according to seniority, for example.
But for Nathalie Delebois, the phenomenon, triggered by the Covid crisis, is generational. “There is a quest for meaning and balance.” Hence greater difficulties in recruiting in sectors such as catering: “Young people no longer want to work on weekends.”
“We systematically ask companies how many days off they offer, their teleworking policy, which we did not do before”, illustrates the recruiter.
When Luxembourg loses its attractiveness
She fears that
limits to telework for cross-border workers
exacerbate the situation. “An accountant from Metz will be more inclined to accept a position in Paris, where he can do more telework.”
Another issue is housing. “Border residents want to return to France, spending two hours in the car no longer interests them. If access to housing were easier, they would migrate to Luxembourg.”
A loss of attractiveness of the country confirmed by Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth, researcher at the University of Luxembourg, specialist in the cross-border labor market. “It is possible that the demographic challenge, with the significant labor needs in all the components of the Greater Region, will see the return of a certain number of cross-border workers to their country of residence. Especially if we take into account mobility concerns, fuel prices and tax reforms that lead to higher taxes for cross-border commuters.”
The Grand Est seems particularly affected by the wave of resignations.
In common statistics, Pôle emploi and the Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity (DREETS)
have 2,080 entries of job seekers after a resignation, an increase of 5.6% in one quarter and 31.6% in one year.
On a national level
, they increased by 2.1% in one quarter and by 29.8% in one year. While the entries of unemployed after dismissal, in both cases, decrease.
It remains to be seen whether
l’inflation
will not, conversely, curb these resignations for more security. “I don’t know, but for the moment, it’s madness”, ends Nathalie Delebois.