Swiss gov't agrees additional 14.2 bln Sfr in unemployment insurance funding

The Swiss government on Wednesday agreed an additional 14.2 billion Swiss francs ($14.71 billion) in financing for unemployment insurance, as it announced it would begin easing out of extraordinary COVID-19 measures granting unemployment and short-term work benefits to more people.

Exceptional claims to short-term work for self-employed and people in similar situations, as well as for apprentices, would lapse at the end of May, it said, and short-term work claims would once again need to be registered in advance. ($1 = 0.9656 Swiss francs)