Under the programme, known as work-sharing, employers reduce their workers’ weekly hours and pay, often by 20 or 40 per cent, and then states make up some of the lost wages, usually half, from their unemployment funds. Even though 17 states have adopted the programme, and many executives and economists hail it as a way to keep workers employed and companies staffed with skilled labor, only a fraction of the businesses and workers are benefiting.

That is largely because of inertia and ignorance, government officials say. Many companies are unaware of the programme’s existence, and few states advertise it — even though it is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of jobs in Germany, whose work-sharing programme has inspired other nations.

With unemployment in the US above 9 per cent and climbing, pressure is growing on the states that have work-sharing to increase the number of companies and workers that participate, and on the 33 states that don’t have work-sharing to embrace the programme.

At his metal-working plant here in Connecticut, Andrew Nowakowski, president of Tri-Star Industries, says the programme is good for employers, workers and the economy. “It’s a lot better than layoffs,” he said. His 29 nonmanagerial employees now work three- or four-day weeks. “The alternative would have been to lay off three to seven workers,” he said, “but that would mean that when things become busier, I’d run the risk of not having the trained people I need.”

Connecticut makes up more than half the wages the workers lose because of shorter workweeks. New York participates in the programme, too. States have different unemployment insurance formulas, but generally, a worker being paid $600 a week, if laid off, might receive $300 in jobless benefits. With work-sharing, if that worker’s hours drop 20 percent, wages would fall to $480 and work-sharing would make up at least half of the lost wages.