Tens of thousands of temporary workers are being dismissed across Europe as an early indication of the pain that employees in the real economy will feel from the financial crisis. Companies from Argos, the UK retailer, to BMW, the German carmaker, are shedding temporary workers on a large scale as they react to plummeting demand.

"The cutting of temporary workers is an early warning sign. There are a lot of announcements from big companies and from the temping agencies that confirm the trend," said Michael Kvasnicka, a researcher at the RWI Essen economics institute in Germany.