Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de Conjoncture) met on Tuesday 21 May 2024, under the chairmanship of 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 April 2024.
The Economic Committee then studied the forecast requests for partial unemployment for the month of June 2024. The number of requests submitted decreased by three units compared to the previous month. In total, 113 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 102 requests. Among these requests, 85 arose from a cyclical source including 40 from the construction sector, nine were linked to a structural source, i.e. a job retention plan, and eight requests were motivated by a link of economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounts to 6,460 full-time equivalent jobs, compared to 8,426 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 February 2024, notified during the committee for the month of January 2024: out of the 115 forecast requests advised favourably, just 67 actually resorted to partial unemployment, of which fourteen files remain under investigation - thus bringing the number of actual cases to 53.
Of these 53 cases, out of 14,484 beneficiaries forecast for the month of February 2024, currently 1,999 employees (compared to 1,680 in January 2024) were actually unemployed. This represents 397 full-time equivalent jobs.
The actual unemployed hours declared for the month of February 2024 amounted to 68,603, compared to 55,759 in January 2024.
The cost for the Employment Fund for the month of February 2024 therefore amounted to €1,356,306, compared to €1,081,111 in January 2024.
Moreover, the Economic Committee approved four requests for tax exemption for voluntary redundancy compensation, concerning a total of 207 people.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Monday 24 June 2024.
