On the other hand, in many EU countries, if you need to lay off employees, you typically get rid of the most recent hires. So switching job during a recession is also a mean to paint a "lay me off"-shaped target on your shirt.
And mostly it's most-recent hire gets fired first. Of course the government does exempt itself from these regulation: both union folks themselves and people that are for various reasons placed by government (e.g. people who have a regulatory function, but work/are paid by the bank, and usually a whole management structure above them), cannot get fired. Only in healthcare have I really seen that there's a real order, and of course, it's based on perceived status. Maintenance personnel gets fired first, administrators last. Despite the obvious problems this generates for the care patients receive.
The real kick in the nuts of these agreements is that because they have force of law, they override your contract (instead of contracts taking precedence like in the private sector) and are not bound by many rules (e.g. they can devalue pensions already earned AFTER THE FACT. For example, say you "earn" 100 per month pension for every year of work. After 20 years, they suddenly decide that, no, they're only going to pay you 50. Despite you having already earned that)
Did you expect me to list dozens of other companies?
Here in France, there's an up to six months "trial" period during which either party can terminate the employment for any reason and without notice. In case of a downturn, it's convenient to lay these people off.
Had this happen to me once, when I joined a company that, as it turned out, had to undergo some "restructuring" [0]. Three months in, my boss told me they weren't going to keep me, nor anyone else on their trial period. They were cool about it though, and told me I could stay until I found a replacement (or the full six months) and they even introduced me to a recruiter who did a pretty good job. In the end, I moved on to a much better position two weeks later, so all in all, and to GP's point, it was a good thing.
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[0] Things did get quite bad. As I found out later from an ex-colleague, many people had left; so this wasn't just a disguised way of kicking me out.