At least in Sweden (and I believe Germany is similar) there are no layoffs as you see in the US. In Sweden an employer might extend an offer to buy you out of your employment contract, which you can deny and continue to be employed. If they want to do layoffs they will have to follow LAS which has a few provisions on how it should be done, including a LIFO order for who gets shafted, and any positions considered "redundant" not being able to be hired at all for a few months (I believe it's 6 months but I might be wrong).