I was offering a different angle, not saying that employment can be fully explained either by employer or employee motivations.

There are circumstances where a government forces matters in one direction or the other. In Slavery by Another Name, it's explained that after the Civil War, there were laws requiring black people to get permission from their employers to get a job with someone else, and also vagrancy laws against being unemployed.

On the employee's side, there can be laws (France, the Soviet Union) or customary contracts (tenure) which make it impossible or almost impossible to fire them.

In general, I'd frame it as employees and employers are hoping that the other will solve problems for them, and the hope is frequently more or less realized.