Less than one in ten in Luxembourg stays in work after receiving pension

Less than one in ten people in Luxembourg were still in work six months after receiving their first pension last year, one of the lowest rates in the EU.

Just 9.4% of people aged 50 to 74 in Luxembourg remained in employment after receiving their first pension, according to data published by the bloc’s official statistics agency Eurostat on Monday.

That was well below the EU average of 13%, with the share of Luxembourg pensioners in the workforce among the lowest quarter of the 30 countries – the 27 EU member states and Iceland, Switzerland and Norway – assessed by Eurostat.

The share of people who said they continued working out of financial necessity in Luxembourg, at 14.4%, was the third-lowest of all countries surveyed, with almost half saying they remained in the workforce simply because they enjoyed their job.

The study examined participation in the workforce only after receipt of the first pension, and did not distinguish between a state pension or private pension, therefore drawing no difference between someone who took early retirement in Luxembourg and someone who retired at 65 on a state pension in another EU country.

Luxembourg’s official retirement age is 65, but many people leave the workforce much earlier, often at 57 or 60, depending on their level of contributions.

The share of Luxembourg residents working beyond the official retirement age has more than doubled in a decade but still represents a tiny percentage of the country’s over-65 population, according to data from the social security ministry last year.

A public consultation was launched in the autumn about potential pension reforms in Luxembourg by Social Security Minister Martine Deprez, who warned last year that without changes, the pension fund’s €22 billion portfolio would run dry by 2042.

By 2027, Luxembourg will be paying out more to pensioners than it is collecting from people in work as the number of retired people is growing faster than the labour force, projections by the General Inspectorate of Social Security from 2022 show.