More than 20,000 jobs avoided the chopping block in 2009 by enrolling in the Employment Security Department’s Shared-Work Program.

That’s according to numbers released by ESD Monday, showing a record 2,800 businesses and about 51,000 employees participated in the program in 2009. The year before, there were 621 employers and 21,272 employees approved.

The program allows companies to temporarily cut employee hours by as much as 50 percent, and makes workers eligible for partial unemployment benefits. (Read a story I wrote last year here.)

The program is flexible, so employers can add or reduce work hours based on workload needs.

Employment Security officials said the program saved the state money last year. About $40 million in shared-work benefits was paid to participants that year. But the state would have paid about $54 million if those workers were entirely out of work and had collected 17 weeks of benefits.

Know a small business you think we should write about? Contact Herald writer Amy Rolph at arolph@heraldnet.com.

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