system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is the unemployment rate in European countries, such as UK and Germany, still so low?

It currently stands at 3.9% for UK and 3.5% for Germany which seems very low considering the COVID-19 impacts.
gpt
Germany has a program called "Kurzarbeit" (short work). The way this works is that the employee receives reduced hours and the State pays 60% of the lost wages. So an employee put on 50% time would receive 80% of their typical wage.

This program gives a number of benefits.

* Germany doesn't have at-will employment. Firing workers is more difficult than in the US. Alternatively, getting one's company to be part of the Kurzarbeit program is quite easy.
* There's no benefit to the company to lay off an employee; the company can just put them at 0 time, and the State will pay them 60% of the wage. Then, when the company is able to rev up, they can ease that person back up to 100%.
* There's no downside to the employee. The employee remains in all the normal programs (healthcare, paying into pension, etc.) while still drawing a paycheck. In fact, many employees loved working a fraction of the time while receiving most of their monthly paycheck.

Germany also had a larger per capita bailout program than the US did.