Despite the regulations, France remains one of the Continent’s top destinations for foreign direct investment. But conscious of the stigma, the country’s Socialist president, François Hollande, took steps last year to enhance the business environment after a report commissioned by his government urged him to administer a “competitiveness shock” needed to avoid long-term industrial decline.

Mr. Hollande pushed through a series of changes to French labor laws, including making it easier for companies to fire workers or reduce their pay and work hours in an economic downturn. He also introduced €20 billion, or $27 billion, worth of tax breaks for businesses.

Still, the imminent closing of the Goodyear factory, the latest in a series of mass layoffs at large companies across France, underscored the economic consequences for workers in a country that is grappling with a high — and climbing — unemployment rate. The country is on the verge of slipping into a second recession in two years. While other big economies in Europe are showing at least glimmers of growth, France’s appears to be heading in the opposite direction.

Unions at the Goodyear plant had been demanding higher-than-usual severance packages of €80,000, or about $110,000, plus €2,500 for each year worked. “It will take years for these workers to find new jobs, and the older ones will have almost no chance,” said Professor Fitoussi.

While boss-nappings have taken place in other countries — workers at a medical device factory in China held the American owner for nearly a week last year before he met their wage demands — the tactic has become associated with France.

In 2009, French employees took executives of Caterpillar hostage temporarily when talks over revamping the company’s operation broke down. Workers trapped François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of Kering, the group that owns Gucci and was then known as PPR, in his car that same year. Bosses at 3M and Sony were also held against their will in an attempt to get bigger severance packages.

Before they were released, the two executives — Bernard Glesser, the director of human resources at the Amiens plant, and Michel Dheilly, the director of production — were filmed by journalists and spoke with their families. They appeared mostly at ease, smiling and consulting their cellphones. But as workers milled about and occasionally shouted at them, the executives were not casually accepting their situation.