Cross Border Workers

13 stories

Society
Mobility
Luxembourg's rail network faces a year of rolling closures as CFL steps up €4.7bn modernisation
Luxembourg's national railway CFL has laid out its heaviest works calendar in years: nearly 30km of track renewed in 2026, with closures concentrated in every school holiday and replacement buses running on the routes to Thionville, Arlon and Trier. The programme opens a 15-year, €4.7bn infrastructure contract signed in December 2025, cementing Luxembourg's position as Europe's top per-capita rail investor.
By Tom Schmit2 days ago
Economy
Greater Region
Longwy presses Luxembourg to help fund services strained by commuters
Longwy and the Meurthe-et-Moselle department want Luxembourg to help finance the public services strained by tens of thousands of daily commuters, and a French interministerial delegate to negotiate it. Luxembourg insists it already co-finances cross-border infrastructure and prefers projects to permanent payments — even as it pays Belgian communes nearly €48 million a year.
By Tom Schmit6 days ago
Economy
Public finance
Luxembourg's social security contributions rise to €8.77 billion in 2025
Luxembourg's Centre commun de la sécurité sociale collected €8.77 billion in social security contributions in 2025, up 6.7%, as a growing and better-paid workforce — nearly half of it cross-border — underpinned the country's pensions and health system amid building long-term sustainability pressures.
By Jonas Thill6 days ago
Economy
Cross-border labour
Germany's commuter flow to Luxembourg stalls as French numbers rise
French commuters are driving almost all of Luxembourg's cross-border hiring while German numbers slip, reshaping the workforce that fills nearly half the Grand Duchy's jobs.
By Jonas Thill26 June 2026
Europe
Greater Region
Pope to bring his message for Europe to Metz, on Luxembourg's doorstep
Pope Leo XIV will end his 25-28 September trip to France in Metz, celebrating Mass at the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in a leg dedicated to European reconciliation and the legacy of EU founding father Robert Schuman. The Moselle city sits inside Luxembourg's cross-border catchment, putting a papal gesture toward a divided Europe on the Grand Duchy's doorstep.
By Tom Schmit25 June 2026
Europe
European Union
Bardella sets out how the RN would defy the EU from within, with implications for Luxembourg
Jordan Bardella's Rassemblement National has spelled out a plan to stay inside the EU while gutting its rules from within. For Luxembourg — 47% of whose workers commute across borders — the stakes are existential.
By Camille Reuter24 June 2026
Society
Greater Region
Heatwave damages CFL track, disrupting cross-border rail in Luxembourg
A red-alert heatwave deformed track near Berchem on 22 June 2026, forcing Luxembourg's CFL to cancel and slow trains on its Esch-sur-Alzette and Thionville–Metz lines, hitting cross-border commuters as rail networks across Europe cut services.
By Tom Schmit24 June 2026
Economy
Labour market
Luxembourg's jobless rate edges down to 6.2% as vacancies climb
Luxembourg's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate slipped to 6.2% at the end of May 2026 and employers declared more vacancies, even as registered resident jobseekers rose 6.5% year-on-year, ADEM figures show — a mixed picture against a flat eurozone labour market.
By Jonas Thill23 June 2026
Economy
Wages
Minimum Wage in Luxembourg 2026: Gross, Net and Hourly Rates
Luxembourg's social minimum wage rose 2.5% on 1 June 2026 to €2,771.33 gross a month for unskilled work and €3,325.59 for qualified work. A guide to the hourly rates, the under-18 tiers, gross-to-net deductions and how indexation moves the figure.
By Jonas Thill22 June 2026
Society
Family benefits
Family Allowance in Luxembourg: 2026 Amounts and How to Apply
A plain-language guide to Luxembourg's family allowance in 2026: the current monthly amounts and age supplements, who qualifies (including cross-border workers), how to apply to the CAE, and the birth and back-to-school allowances.
By Léa Hoffmann22 June 2026
Economy
Labour market
Luxembourg's jobless rolls and vacancies climb together, pointing to a skills mismatch
Luxembourg's registered jobseekers rose 6.5% year-on-year in May 2026 while employer vacancies climbed 7.6%, a divergence ADEM and the government attribute to a deepening skills mismatch.
By Jonas Thill22 June 2026
Economy
Labour market
Eight in ten of Luxembourg's new workers are graduates, study finds
The LUXTALENT study by the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research finds that roughly eight in ten of the foreign workers arriving on Luxembourg's labour market hold a university degree, and nearly nine in ten new entrants in 2024 were born abroad. The findings quantify how the Grand Duchy's prosperity rests on importing skilled labour from across the EU and beyond — even as half of newcomers leave within five years, with housing costs the main reason.
By Jonas Thill16 June 2026
Europe
Greater Region
The Greater Region: the 220,000 commuters who keep Luxembourg running
Cross-border workers — frontaliers — make up close to half of Luxembourg's employees. We explain where they come from, why the country depends on them, and the strains the arrangement creates.
By Jonas Thill7 June 2026