Further support planned for employment

The government is likely to extend until September the ban on layoffs at businesses that will participate in the sixth phase of the cheap state loans program; the next "Deposit To Be Returned" stage is scheduled for March.

That may be the final government action for the protection of employment in the context of support measures amid the pandemic. So far the measures have worked rather well for one of the areas most vulnerable to the consequences of the pandemic.

Some 740,000 employees are under protected status up to end-March in the context of the fourth phase of the program, while Finance Ministry data show that the fifth phase, which has just stopped receiving applications, will extend protection to most of them until the end of June.

At the same time, the businesses that placed workers on furlough have committed to keeping them on payroll for at least as...