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Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de Conjoncture) met on Friday 19 April 2024, under the chairmanship of 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 March 2024
The Economic Committee then studied the forecast requests for partial unemployment for the month of May 2024. The number of requests submitted decreased by 29 units compared to the previous month. In total, 116 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 Government Council (cabinet).
After analysing the submitted files, the Economic Committee ruled favourably on 111 requests. Among these requests, 91 arose from a cyclical source including 44 from the construction sector, eleven were linked to a structural source, i.e. a job retention plan, and nine requests were motivated by a link of economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounts to 8,426 full-time equivalent jobs, compared to 9,093 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. Consequently, 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. Once a forecast request has been favourably notified, companies have two months to submit a count of actual non-working hours to the ADEM employment agency.
Concerning the requests for partial unemployment for the month of January 2024, notified during the committee for the month of December 2023: out of the 85 forecast requests advised favourably, just 62 actually resorted to partial unemployment, of which five files remain under investigation - thus bringing the number of actual cases to 57.
Of these 57 cases, out of 3,739 beneficiaries forecast for the month of January 2024, currently 1,680 employees (compared to 1,615 in December 2023) were actually unemployed. This represents 322 full-time equivalent jobs.
The actual unemployed hours declared for the month of January 2024 amounted to 55,759, compared to 53,280 in December 2023.
The cost for the Employment Fund for the month of January 2024 therefore amounted to €1,081,111, compared to €1,062,784 in December 2023.
Moreover, the Economic Committee approved three requests for tax exemption for voluntary redundancy compensation, concerning a total of 54 people.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Tuesday 21 May 2024.
