Loan: Employment agency needs more money from the federal government

Berlin. Due to the persistently high unemployment, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) expects a higher federal loan requirement for 2027 than previously planned.

“We are currently expecting that the previously estimated loan amount of 5.2 billion euros will be higher,” a BA spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency on Monday. It is still unclear how high the additional financial requirements will be. The authority is currently drawing up its budget for 2027 based on the federal government's autumn projection.

The spokeswoman cited high unemployment as the reason for the expected additional demand. According to the federal government's key figures, the average number of unemployed is expected to remain almost unchanged in 2027 at 2.997 million. The spokeswoman explained that the economic recovery has not yet been reflected in the labor market. Even if the economic upswing continues to solidify, it will take some time before this becomes visible on the labor market.

The 5.2 billion euros were estimated in June based on the BA's financial planning at the time and are taken into account in the government's draft for the 2027 federal budget. The federal loan is a so-called financial transaction that is not counted towards the debt brake and therefore does not create a new hole in the budget.

It is unclear whether the loan amount will be increased. The Bundestag's budget committee wants to decide on the final changes to the draft for the 2027 federal budget in its adjustment meeting from Thursday.

Only last week it became known that the federal government would have to help the BA with loans worth up to nine billion euros this year. That would be around 600 million euros more than expected in June.