the employment adjustment subsidy finances a proportion of wage payments if the firm has to scale down its business operations for cyclical or industrial restructuring reasons and without dismissals adopts measures such as temporary leave with pay inhouse education or training or temporary transfer of employees to other firms shorttime work not only prevents unemployment but also facilitates a rapid expansion of economic activities when demand increases again it helps to avoid redundancies which may lead to loss of firmspecific human capital and a later need for recruitment which is costly and timeconsuming oecd g the rationale for shorttime work schemes is strongest for companies whose financial difficulties are linked to the business cycle rather than to structural factors however the restructuring process is often accelerated during recessions and some deadweight losses are inevitable in order to improve the instrument and its impact on the future job situation of the workers some other oecd countries eg austria belgium france and germany promote the training of workers in the shorttimework subsidy scheme oecd g