Dr. Karina Doorley:

On the Kurzarbeit scheme, we did look at that when the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, came in. Very briefly, to give the pros and cons of schemes like that, they can be great in a crisis when there is risk of massive job loss because they help companies to retain employees on reduced hours with subsidised wages. The downside is that it only benefits insiders, that is, only those who are already in a job. In the situation we are in at the moment, with full employment, that is not so much of a risk. The other issue is that it can lead to stickiness in the labour market. If an industry is no longer viable, people are still staying in it instead of retraining and going elsewhere. That is the broad overview but it is definitely worth looking at. I think it was suggested that something like that would be examined in a longer-term perspective after the EWSS was wound down. I have not seen anything more concrete on that.