Published on Tuesday, the government figures show that 4,323 firms (down from 4,450 the previous month) applied for a so-called “short-time working” support, which subsidises the salaries of employees who are unable to carry out their work because of pandemic restrictions. In total 4,276 applications were approved, down from 4,362 in March.

The economic committee responsible for reviewing the applications assessed the situation of 43 further companies wishing to introduce a recovery plan and four sectoral employment plans. It greenlighted just one of the applications, related to legal provisions on early retirement.

The short-time working scheme has been extended to 30 June 2021.