There was the desire by management to avoid layoffs when possible and try to retain and promote employees from within. This used to be in the best interests of the Company long term.
Similarly employees benefitted from seniority and pensions. So there were mutual benefits in employees staying with a Company.
No more. Companies scrapped pensions and employees skip from job to job. I see blame on both sides but a lot of it has been driven by lousy economic policies by the federal government.
I don’t think it was the government as I see the same problem in companies all over the world — even in Japan!