57 Companies Apply for Partial Unemployment for February

Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture) met on Tuesday 27 January 2026, under the chairmanship of Luxembourg’s Minister of Labour, Marc Spautz.

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

The Committee then examined the forecast requests for short-time working for February 2026. The number of requests submitted decreased by three compared with the previous month. In total, 57 companies submitted a preliminary request to benefit from the provisions of this measure for the month concerned; the final decision on the granting of this support lies with the Government Council (Cabinet).

After analysing the files submitted, the Committee approved 50 requests. Of these, 34 were due to cyclical reasons, eight were due to structural reasons (i.e. linked to an employment retention plan) and eight requests were justified by economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounts to 4,942 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, compared with 4,584 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 Economic 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 October 2025, approved at the September 2025 committee meeting, of the 47 forecast requests approved, 32 companies actually made use of short-time working. Four cases remain under review, bringing the number of settled cases to 28.

In total, of these 28 reports, out of the 1,750 employees initially announced for October 2025, 903 employees actually took short-time working, compared with 714 employees the previous month. In terms of FTEs, 226 FTEs actually took short-time working, compared with 158 FTEs the previous month.

Companies declared 39,100 hours of short-time working for October 2025, compared with 27,347 hours the previous month.

The cost to the Employment Fund for October 2025 amounted to €754,424, compared with €220,611 in September 2025.

The Economic Committee also gave a positive opinion on six requests for tax exemption on severance and termination payments under Article 115 (10) LIR, covering a total of 54 employees.

The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Tuesday 24 February 2026 at 09:00.