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Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Economy has announced that the Luxembourg Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture) met on Tuesday 25 February 2025, under the chairmanship of the Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, and the Minister of Labour, Georges Mischo.
During the meeting, the Economic Committee first analysed the national economic situation and that of the labour market for the month of January 2025.
The Economic Committee then studied the forecast applications for partial unemployment for the month of March 2025. The number of applications increased by five compared to the previous month. In total, 74 companies submitted a forecast application for partial unemployment in order to benefit from the provisions of this measure for the aforementioned month. The final decision on the allocation of this support rests with the Government Council (Cabinet).
After analysing the files submitted, the Economic Committee ruled favourably on 63 requests. Among these requests, 49 are cyclical, nine are structural (i.e. they are linked to a job retention plan) and five requests are motivated by an economic dependency relationship. None of the requests is linked to a case of force majeure. The number of employees concerned amounts to 5,886 full-time equivalent jobs (FTE) compared to 6,624 the previous month.
These figures are indicative and concern the forecast number of employees impacted; 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 have 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 advised, companies have two months to submit a statement of actual non-working hours to ADEM.
Concerning the requests for partial unemployment for the month of November 2024, advised during the committee of October 2024, out of the 67 forecast requests favourably advised, 46 of them actually had recourse to partial unemployment. Three files are currently still under investigation, bringing the actual number of files to 43.
Of these 43 cases, out of 4,385 beneficiaries announced provisionally for the month of November 2024, 2,646 employees have actually been unemployed, compared to 1,796 employees the previous month. This represents 552 FTE, compared to 370 FTE the previous month. The actual hours of unemployment declared for the month of November 2024 amount to 95,516, compared to 64,046 the previous month.
The cost for the employment fund for the month of November 2024 amounts to €1,851,046, compared to €1,311,748 for the month of October 2024.
The Economic Committee then issued a positive opinion in relation to the legal provisions on early retirement-adjustment concerning a total of 52 employees. The committee proposed a rate of participation in the cost of early retirement.
Moreover, the Economic Committee issued a positive opinion on four requests for tax exemption in the context of severance and redundancy payments, pursuant to Article 115 (10) L.I.R., concerning a total of 28 people.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Tuesday 25 March 2025.
SM
