According to Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, the situation on the labor market is currently better than expected in the autumn. For this reason, the rules that existed before the corona pandemic should soon apply again for short-time work.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) does not want to extend simplified access to short-time work benefits beyond the end of June. “The economic development and also the situation on the labor market are currently better than we could have expected in the autumn,” said Heil der Rheinische Post for justification. Germany currently has the highest level of employment – despite the Corona crisis and the war in Ukraine. “That’s why we will not extend the simplified access to short-time work benefits after the end of June,” said the Minister of Labor.
The issue now is securing skilled workers. “We will invest more money in the qualification and further training of employees.” At the same time, the Federal Employment Agency must be able to build up reserves for future crises, said Heil. There are currently only 162,000 employees on short-time work, at the height of the Corona crisis in spring 2020 there were six million. “In the years 2020 to 2022 we spent a total of 45.5 billion euros on short-time work benefits. That is an enormous sum,” said the minister.
But that paid off. In a study, the International Monetary Fund found that without the special regulations, unemployment would have risen by three percentage points at the peak of the crisis in the second quarter of 2020. “That corresponds to around 1.3 million people who we saved from unemployment with short-time work,” said the SPD politician. Companies can continue to apply for short-time work benefits for their employees in the future. But you will now return to the pre-crisis rules. According to this, at least 30 percent of the employees in a company must be affected by short-time work in the future, currently it is 10 percent.
If a company registers short-time work, employees receive 60 percent of their net wages, parents 67 percent. The employer alone pays the social security contributions, which are slightly reduced.