The Luxembourgish minister for economy, Jeannot Krecké and the minister for employment, Nicolas Schmit presented the government's figure for unemployment on Wednesday and the figures are alarming.

In October 2009, Luxembourg registered a 6% unemployment rate with 14,062 job seekers whereas for the same month in 2008, Luxembourg counted 10,441 jobless residents which represents a 34.7% increase over a year. Since September 2009, the unemployment rate has increased by 5% with 670 more jobless people. In the European Union, a total of 4 million people lost their jobs. In Luxembourg, only 6,785 people receive compensation out of the 14,062 unemployed.

Nicolas Schmit highlighted the fact that one third of the job seekers are below 30 years old and 19% are under 26. The government has taken measures to promote employment for young people. A website (www.anelo.lu) was launched and within 3 days it registered 150 young job seekers and 70 companies. The system already enabled 12 contracts to be signed.

As regards the Greater Region, Belgium's Wallonia province is the worst off with unemployment reaching 16.8%. France's unemployment rates are a little better with 10.2% for Moselle and 9.2% for Meurthe et Moselle. Germany is the luckiest with an unemployment rate of 7.4% for Saarland and 5.6% for Rhineland-Palatinate.