[SahAssar]

Different countries have different laws, but at least in sweden it is common to be part of an income guarantee program (a-kassa, usually via a union but can also be outside of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_funds_in_Sweden). You get around 80% of your income for the first two thirds-ish of a year (200 days) and 70% for the rest of the year.

It's obviously good that this is handled outside the employers control.

After that you get the normal unemployment benefits from the state which is capped at a low but livable level.

It is (in sweden) abnormal (and illegal) for companies to just fire people without cause, and the valid causes are pretty restricted. One of the few valid causes are lack-of-work (arbetsbrist), but even that triggers negotiations between the employer, the employee and the union, and is usually a last-in, first-out thing. The employment contracts are always including a fixed notice (I think it's 3 months regulated by LAS, can be lower if your on a trial employment up to 6 months).

As an example, the klarna downsizing was major news in sweden a second time because of their obviously illegal way of handling firings.

> Other "European" countries have much worse severance packages.

Please give me a source.

[daenz]

>Please give me a source.

The source is in my post. They cover France, Luxembourg, UK, and the Netherlands, and the first three are worse than the Netherlands.