MNI BRIEF: December Sees Dip In German Short-Term Work Scheme

December saw a modest decline in short-term work across Germany through December, the latest survey by the Ifo Institute showed. According to Ifo, 1.95 million people were enrolled in the program last month compared to 1.98 million in the previous month. While manufacturing saw a decrease in short-term work to 8.4% of the workforce, the retail and hospitality sector saw large upticks to 150,000 and 414,000 employees, respectively.

"Even if it looks on the surface like things are stabilizing, greater shifts are happening behind the scenes: yes, short-time work is down in manufacturing, in all of its economic sectors. But it increased in retail and hospitality, which the current lockdown has hit especially hard," says ifo labor market expert Sebastian Link.

However, Ifo noted that thee data could be an underestimation as some survey participants had already reported their figures for short-term work before the new lockdown measures were announced in mid-December.