> I think at-will employment in the US is key to their startup ecosystem. It makes their market very "liquid", as you can hire fast and fire fast.

Is that really the case? I would have naively assumed the typical (median) startup path is something like hire, hire, hire, go-bankrupt? And the successful ones more like hire, hire, hire, hire, hire, go-public?

Easy firing doesn't seem relevant to either of those?

Companies in Europe are much more reluctant to hire precisely because it is so much harder to fire. When I lived in the US, and got offers, the company’s first question would be: what’s the earliest you can start? In Europe my experience has been long processes that are dragged out unnecessarily.

Hiring is riskier, and therefore slower. There are 2 sides to it of course, on one hand employees are much more protected from losing their jobs, but on the other one innovation and fast access to jobs is also slower.

Also, it is not only about firing. Hiring is also slower because of all the paperwork that needs to happen. For example, in Spain you cannot just hire someone. You need to draft out a contract, cover every possible detail related to the work that the person will be doing, etc. it is just slower in general.

This brings me back to my min point though: employment at will.