I am a three time corporate layoff recipient. All my layoffs happened after the 2008 crisis. Tell me if I am wrong but it seemed that back in the day, companies tried to protect their employees and used layoffs as a last resort measure. Since 2008, I have experienced and seen may of my friends get laid off numerous times. It seems like many companies have all jumped on the bandwagon and pull the layoff lever as their first call to action if they miss their quarterly earnings. Which happened on my last layoff. I was in the biotech industry but I have lots of friends in the semiconductor industry having the same experiences. This gets me to connect my point that they were laying off many mid management positions and rehiring with new grads. I think your article speaks volumes on what is happening behind the scenes in the corporate world.