in addition to the changes in france portugal and ireland discussed above measures to reduce employer social contributions for all new hires were introduced or extended focusing on groups such as mid to longerterm unemployed hungary hirkey and peripheral regions finland in the united states firms making new hires from february to december of people who have been unemployed for at least two months will be exempted from payroll taxes public finance issues have forced the czech republic to terminate temporary reductions in nonwage labour costs targeted at lowwage workers takeup has been highest in belgium turkey italy germany and luxembourg accounting for over to almost of all employees with the exception of belgium few employees were participating in shorttime work schemes prior to the onset of the crisis participating in training is compulsory for workers on shorttime work in the czech republic hungary the netherlands and portugal while training is not compulsory it is publiclysubsidised for shorttime workers in finland belgium austria portugal poland germany hungary japan norway and switzerland