The situation on the labour market shows employers still need the scheme, Janez Cigler Kralj, the minister of labour, the family and social affairs, said on Twitter on Thursday.

While Cigler had earlier indicated he was more in favour of employers gradually transitioning to short-time work, he has acknowledged that some industries still need the furlough scheme.

This is the last possible extension of the measure under current legislation.

Jelko Kacin, the government's coronavirus spokesman, said the main reason the furlough had been extended was to help some sectors that were still struggling, in particular the events industry and transportation companies.

Employment Service figures show employers have so far received EUR 258 million in subsidies for furloughing employees.

Another tranche of funds, just over EUR 10 million, will be paid out on Friday. For September it is estimated that EUR 16.5 million will be required.

Several hundred thousand employees have so far benefited from the scheme, which has been tweaked several times since it was introduced.

Applications for roughly 50,000 employees were processed by the Employment Service under the latest legislation governing the scheme, which applies to July and August.

Eligible employers get subsidies equalling 80% of wages.