I'm a frenchman who left for the US. The 3-month long notice period does indeed sound insane, but it's not the reason it's hard to hire people. In fact, you go

I'm a frenchman who left for the US. The 3-month long notice period does indeed sound insane, but it's not the reason it's hard to hire people. In fact, you got cause-and-effect the wrong way around. It's hard to fire people, which is why employers are hesitant to hire (and why the contractor business is so large). So as an employee, you're relatively safe. In return, the employer is relatively safe from an employee up-and-leaving, thanks to the 3-month notice. Of course, the secondary effects are huge: because the hiring market is less fluid, people will stick around bad situations longer, both employees and employers, with expected consequences. I won't detail them here, in case my anecdotal experience doesn't entirely match country-level trends. For example, it can be argued that if you're more strongly tied to a job you'll make more effort to improve things rather than just leave.