When times get tough they shouldnt hire freelancers in the first place... If they have ongoing hires they pay 3 times as much on a freelancer as they do on an employee... this logic doesn't check out at all
If you have full-time employees you have to fire them when times get tough. In some countries it’s very hard to fire people and it requires months of notice. These laws encourage companies to choose contractors so they don’t get stuck with employees they can’t fire during tough times.
If you have freelancers you can more flexibly pause, delay, or reduce hours and then resume them again when you need them.
You can also scale freelancers to your workload or ability. With each FTE you’re committing to an extra 40 hours of pay every single week, no exceptions. With a freelancer you could have them do 5 hours one week, 0 hours the next, 40 hours after that. Even at 3-5X the rate it could come out to be less costly if the workload is intermittent.
This is, of course, true. I want to add that a company in Europe can still tell you not to come back tomorrow. They would just have to pay for those months of notice as if you were employed. In other words, it is expensive, but it is only a money issue.
Bingo. That's all that matters.
It doesn't make any sense.
In a country with strong labor laws, you can't do that with FTEs, you're stuck with them unless they make major missteps.