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Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture) met on Tuesday 24 February 2026, under the chairmanship of Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, and Minister of Labour, Marc Spautz.
During the meeting, the Economic Committee first analysed the national economic situation and the labour market developments for January 2026.
The Committee then examined the forecast requests for short-time working for March 2026. The number of requests submitted decreased by six compared with the previous month. In total, 51 companies submitted a forecast request to benefit from the short-time working scheme for the month in question; the final decision on granting this support rests with the Government Council.
After analysing the files submitted, the Committee approved 46 requests. Of these, 32 were due to cyclical reasons, seven were structural in nature, i.e. linked to an employment retention plan, and seven were justified by economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounted to 2,694 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, compared with 4,942 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. For this reason, the Committee also reports the number of employees who have actually benefited from the measure. This 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 November 2025, approved at the October 2025 committee meeting, 35 of the 51 forecast requests approved effectively made use of the scheme. Four cases remain under review, bringing the number of settled cases to 31.
Of these 31 reports, out of the 1,980 employees initially announced for November 2025, 921 employees actually took short-time working, compared with 903 the previous month. In terms of FTEs, 199 FTEs actually took short-time working, compared with 226 FTEs the previous month.
Companies declared 34,462 hours of short-time working for November 2025, compared with 39,100 the previous month.
The cost to the Employment Fund for November 2025 amounted to €704,711, compared with €754,424 in October 2025.
Furthermore, the Economic Committee issued a positive opinion on three requests for tax exemption of dismissal and departure compensation (pursuant to Article 115 (10) L.I.R.), concerning a total of six employees.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Tuesday 24 March 2026 at 09:00.
