On Tuesday 27 February 2024, Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy confirmed that the Economic Committee met on Monday 26 February, chaired by the Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles and the Minister of Labour, Georges Mischo.
During its meeting, the Economic Committee first analysed the national economic situation and that of the labour market for the month of January 2024.
The Economic Committee then studied the forecast requests for partial unemployment for the month of March 2024. The number of requests submitted increased by 54 units compared to the previous month. In total, 149 companies submitted a provisional request for partial unemployment in order to benefit from the provisions of this measure for the month in question; the final decision on the allocation of this support rests with the cabinet of the Luxembourg government.
After analysing the files submitted, the Economic Committee ruled favourably on 118 requests. Among these requests, 98 arise from a cyclical source, of which 45 relate to the construction sector (construction of residential and non-residential buildings, as well as demolition and preparation of sites), eleven arise from a structural source, i.e. they are linked to a job retention plan, and nine requests motivated by a link of economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounts to 7,920 full-time equivalent jobs (FTE) compared to 7,514 the previous month.
The ministry stressed that these figures are indicative and concern the forecast number of impacted employees, they therefore do not represent a concrete indicator of the economic situation. This is why the Economic Committee also provides information on the number of employees who actually benefited from the measure. This assessment can be done three months after the forecast requests made upstream. Indeed, once a forecast request has been favourably notified, companies have two months to submit a count of actual non-working hours to ADEM.
Concerning therefore, the requests for partial unemployment for the month of November 2023, notified during the committee for the month of September 2023, out of the 85 forecast requests advised favourably, just 61 of them actually resorted to partial unemployment, of which one file remains currently still under investigation; therefore bringing the number of actual cases to 60.
In total, of these 60 counts, out of 8,153 beneficiaries forecast for the month of November 2023, currently 3,151 employees, compared to 2,610 in the month of October 2023, are actually unemployed. This represents 601 FTEs.
The actual unemployed hours declared for the month of November 2023 amount to 104,014, compared to 100,198 the previous month (September 2023).
The cost for the employment fund for the month of November 2023 amounts to €2,840,000, compared to €1,979,000 in October 2023.
Furthermore, the Economic Committee announced three job retention plans, one of which was favourably advised and two of which remain pending.
