Yeah, here in Germany, workers have stronger protections, laying them off isn't as easy, and I feel like the layoff waves have largely not occurred here, because companies didn't hire so much during the pandemic.

Another factor was the PPP and other "totally not bailouts" that were part of the COVID relief spending.

Of the roughly $800 billion dollars from PPP which was provided as uncollateralized, low-interest loans 66-77% went directly to companies and ~92% of those loans were completely forgiven.. In other words an ~5-600M bailout predicated on keeping positions open long enough to maintain plausible deniability that is what the goal was.