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Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de Conjoncture) met on Tuesday 19 August 2025, under the chairmanship of Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles.

During the meeting, the Economic Committee first analysed the national economic situation and the labour market situation for July 2025.

The Committee then examined the forecast requests for short-time working for September 2025. The number of requests submitted increased by two compared with the previous month. In total, 46 companies submitted a forecast request for the granting of short-time working in order to benefit from the provisions of this measure for the month in question; the final decision on the granting of this support lies with the Government Council (Cabinet).

After analysing the files submitted, the Committee approved 42 requests. Of these requests, 27 were due to cyclical reasons, eight were due to structural reasons, i.e. linked to an employment retention plan, and seven were justified by economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounted to 4,368 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, compared with 3,656 the previous month.

According to the Committee, these figures are indicative and relate to the forecast number of employees affected; they therefore do not represent a concrete indicator of the economic situation. This is why the Conjuncture Committee also reports the number of employees who have actually benefited from the measure. That assessment can be made three months after the forecast requests are submitted. Once a forecast request has been approved, companies have two months to submit a breakdown of the hours actually lost to ADEM.

With regard to short-time working requests for May 2025, approved at the April 2025 committee meeting, of the 52 forecast requests approved, 32 companies actually made use of short-time working. Five cases remain under review, bringing the number of settled cases to 27.

In total, of these 27 reports, out of the 1,982 employees initially announced for May 2025, 1,343 employees actually took short-time working, compared with 1,404 the previous month. In terms of FTEs, 262 FTEs actually took short-time working, compared with 300 FTEs the previous month.

Companies declared 45,378 hours of short-time working for May 2025, compared with 51,915 the previous month.

The cost to the Employment Fund for May 2025 amounted to €1,006,943, compared with €1,131,384 in April 2025.

The next meeting of the Conjuncture Committee will take place on Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 08:30.