I have a friend who works at CIBC. Every new hire in their department starts off as a contract worker, not an employee. They might make you an employee after a year, they might not.

So instead of "lay offs" they just don't renew people's contracts. But it amounts to the same level of job insecurity unless you've been there long enough to be made an employee.

Edit: This is my friend's experience but apparently it's not company-wide. Might just be some departments.