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More than 30m workers in Europe’s five biggest economies have applied to have their wages paid by the state via short-term leave schemes designed to stop unemployment skyrocketing in the coronavirus crisis, the Financial Times reports. 

The rapidly rising figure for the number of furloughed workers in Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain — amounting to nearly a fifth of those countries’ total workforces according to data collected by the FT — underlines the scale of disruption caused to Europe’s labour markets by the pandemic.

Europe’s governments are hoping to persuade employers to keep people on their payroll until the crisis is over by allowing companies to send workers home or reduce their hours temporarily while part of their wages are paid by the state.

The number of Europeans who have applied to join the subsidised schemes is higher than the 26m people who have filed for unemployment benefits in the US in the five weeks since the lockdowns began.

The policy is one of the most expensive measures introduced by European governments in response to the pandemic and has been forecast to cost the region’s five largest economies more than €100bn in total.