Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de Conjoncture) met on Monday 26 August 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 July 2024.
The Economic Committee then studied the forecast requests for partial unemployment for the month of September 2024. The number of requests submitted increased by ten units compared to the previous month. In total, 66 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 59 requests. Among these requests, 42 arose from a cyclical source, 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 7,429 full-time equivalent jobs, compared to 7,054 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 May 2024, notified during the committee for the month of April 2024: out of the 111 forecast requests advised favourably, just 72 actually resorted to partial unemployment, of which seven files remain under investigation - thus bringing the number of actual cases to 65.
Of these 65 cases, out of 2,963 beneficiaries forecast for the month of May 2024, 1,375 employees (compared to 2,593 in April) were actually unemployed. This represents 327 full-time equivalent jobs (down from 514 the previous month). The actual unemployed hours declared for the month of May 2024 amounted to 56,518, compared to 89,958 in April 2024.
The cost for the Employment Fund for the month of May 2024 therefore amounted to €1,152,057, compared to €1,778,148 in April 2024.
Moreover, the Economic Committee approved two requests for tax exemption of voluntary redundancy payments (in application of Article 115 (10) L.I.R.), concerning a total of 43 people.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Monday 23 September 2024.
