OREANDA-NEWS. More than 30 million residents of five European countries with major economies applied for state compensation payments as part of a short-term leave program for employees in order to prevent the rapid growth of unemployment amid the spread of a new coronavirus infection. This was announced on Tuesday by a European newspaper.

According to the publication, we are talking about Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain, where a total of one fifth of the working-age population applied for financial assistance. According to the newspaper, this assistance program is one of the most expensive, according to forecasts, it will cost the five largest economies in the region more than € 100 billion.

Many European population support projects are modeled on the German government program Kurzarbeit, which has proven itself and saved the Federal Republic of Germany from a large jump in unemployment after the 2008 financial crisis. However, economists believe that this approach may not work now, because the economic downturn as a result of the pandemic is more significant and has hit hard small businesses: restaurants, hotels and shops, whose owners can simply fire their workers and stop their activities.