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Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has reported that the Economic Committee (Comité de conjoncture) met on Tuesday 21 April 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 labour market developments for March 2026.
The Committee then examined forecast requests for short-time working for May 2026. The number of requests submitted decreased by three compared with the previous month. In total, 58 companies submitted a forecast request to benefit from the scheme for the month in question; the final decision on granting this support rests with the Government Council.
After analysing the submitted files, the Committee approved 50 requests. Of these, 36 were due to cyclical factors, eight were structural in nature (linked to employment retention plans), and six were justified by economic dependence. The number of employees concerned amounted to 2,442 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, compared with 2,797 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 not worked to ADEM.
With regard to short-time working requests for January 2026, approved at the December 2025 committee meeting, 31 of the 49 forecast requests approved effectively made use of the scheme. Six cases remain under review, bringing the number of settled cases to 25.
Of these 25 reports, out of the 1,212 employees initially announced for January 2026, 732 employees actually took short-time working, compared with 845 the previous month. In terms of FTEs, 167 FTEs actually took short-time working, compared with 160 FTEs the previous month.
Companies declared 28,805 hours of short-time working for January 2026, compared with 27,740 the previous month.
The cost to the Employment Fund for January 2026 amounted to €581,605, compared with €538,437 in December 2025.
Furthermore, the Economic Committee issued a positive opinion on five requests for tax exemption of dismissal and departure compensation (pursuant to Article 115 (10) LIR, concerning a total of 238 employees.
The next meeting of the Economic Committee will take place on Tuesday 26 May 2026 at 09:00.
