From September, the number of unemployed citizens in Europe will increase due to the job retention program introduced during the pandemic. EIU analysts predicted that the average unemployment rate in France, Italy, Spain and the UK will rise from 9.2 percent in 2020 to 10.1 percent in 2021.

In 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, European countries sent employees on temporary leave to save jobs. Government programs in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK covered about a third of the workforce. It was assumed that after the restrictions were lifted, employees would return to their places.