Only 4.7% of Luxembourg workers – fewer than one in twenty – have a skill set that is higher than what their job demands, making it the EU country with the lowest rate of overqualified staff, according to a Eurostat report published on Tuesday.
Looking at employment in 2024, Eurostat found that one in five EU residents is overqualified, with the highest rate recorded in Spain (35%), followed by Greece (33%) and Cyprus (28.2%).
On the other side of the ranking, Sweden, Czechia and Croatia hovered between 10% and 15%. Luxembourg closed the ranking with its 4.7% rate.
Many high level jobs in Luxembourg
The over-qualification rate is calculated by looking at the proportion of people with a tertiary level of education (like a university degree) who work in positions that do not require that kind of skill and experience.
Luxembourg’s low rate can in part be explained by its high availability of high skill jobs.
In its 2023 skills forecast for Luxembourg, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training found that “most job openings are expected to be in highly skilled occupations such as business & administration and associate professionals, legal, social & cultural professionals and science & engineering professionals.”
The country’s share of highly qualified workers stood at 50% and is expected to rise to 60% by 2035, while the rate of job openings for high-skilled, non-manual occupations is expected to take up 65% of total job offers between 2021 and 2035.
Gender-dependent
Women in the EU were more often overqualified than men – representing the majority in 21 member states. Italy (7.7 percentage points), Slovakia (6.4pp) and Malta (5.3pp) recorded the highest discrepancies in favour of men.
Luxembourg recorded a difference of 0.8pp, with 4.3% of men being overqualified against 5.1% of women.
In six countries, men were more likely to work jobs below their skill grade, with the greatest differences recorded in Lithuania (5.2pp) and Latvia (2.6pp).