Part-time unemployment claims on the rise in Luxembourg

The Luxembourg Economic Conjecture Committee, chaired by the Minister of Economy and Energy Lex Delles (Lex Delles), reviewed the current labour market situation and preliminary applications for partial unemployment for September at its meeting on 19 August 2025. The number of applications submitted was 46, only slightly more than the previous month. Of these, 42 were approved.

Most of the requests are related to economic difficulties (27 cases), the rest to structural reasons (8 requests, most often accompanied by a job retention plan) or economic dependence on other companies (7 cases). In total, the preliminary estimates refer to 4,368 full-time equivalent employees (ETP), 712 more than in August.

However, it is important to distinguish between pre-applications and actual utilisation of this measure. For example, of the 52 applications approved in April for May 2025, only 32 companies have actually utilised the support. Of these 32 cases, only 27 have submitted final calculations, the rest are still pending.

According to the reports filed, of the 1,982 workers reported in advance applications, 1,343 were actually in partial unemployment, down slightly from 1,404 a month earlier. In terms of full-time equivalents, that's 262 versus 300 ETP in April. The total number of hours worked (or, more accurately, not worked) in May was 45,378, 6,500 fewer than a month earlier.

The value for the employment fund also fell: €1,006,943 in May compared to €1,131,384 in April.

The Committee emphasises that such data does not directly reflect the state of the economy, but rather provides an indication of the trend in the use of support measures. The next meeting is scheduled for 23 September 2025.