The corona pandemic and the billions in costs associated with short-time work have plunged the Federal Employment Agency (BA) into deep red figures for the second year in a row. The deficit at the end of 2021 is expected to be around 22 billion euros, said a BA spokesman for the Archyde.com news agency on Monday on request. For the past year, the authority will therefore receive around 17 billion euros from the federal budget as a grant. The rest of the deficit will be covered from the remaining reserve, which has thus been used up.
As of December 27, the agency spent 20.2 billion euros on short-time work alone. That is almost as much as in 2020 with around 22 billion euros. The final figures would not be available until mid-January. The BA had largely financed the total deficit of 27 billion euros in 2020 from its own reserves, with a federal grant of 6.9 billion euros. Employees and employers shoulder the lion’s share of BA funding with their contributions to unemployment insurance.
The spokesman put the total expenditure for 2021 at an estimated 58 billion euros, following 61 billion euros in the previous year. For the new year, the BA is assuming total expenditure of 38 billion euros, provided that there are no slumps in the labor market – for example due to a lockdown.
More: 63 billion euros per year – that’s why unemployment is so expensive in Germany
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