The US is going this way, with the normalization of contract work for very technical roles. I think it bled over from software-adjacent roles like graphic design and IT support. Regardless, you're going to see more 6 month 'try before you buy' contracts for PhDs with 10 years of engineering experience, than full time roles today. It makes sense for less mission critical roles I suppose, but I don't understand why organizations are willing to put so much at stake by offering a shit sandwich for mission critical roles. And they wonder why there is a hiring issue today.
Going this way? It's been this way for decades. Every job I've ever had began with a probationary period, generally 30 - 90 days, maybe one or two were longer.
I've had managers not want to terminate during probation period because it makes them look bad as they hired the wrong person, so they prefer contracts that they can just not renew.
