Yeah,contract work in north america is more reserved for very specific situations (for example, you need expertise in some very niche system) and even then that

Yeah,contract work in north america is more reserved for very specific situations (for example, you need expertise in some very niche system) and even then that's pretty rare outside of consultants. In Europe it's everywhere. When I was in France it was quite jarring and imo, it seems like it would be more stressful than at will employment as it's basically a yearly stress (as opposed to stress only when the economy is bad for example). But I think some European countries have some protections for contractors too, I just don't know if those apply to when your contract just doesn't get renewed.