That’s left these high-value companies overstaffed and out of balance. Now, they have to respond to investor pressure to cut costs. And that means cutting jobs. In an assessment of fourth-quarter earnings calls, Goldman Sachs economists found that “many firms were pessimistic on the labor market,” though they noted that “a majority of firms are actually discussing the high profile [tech] layoffs themselves but not indicating that their own companies will be laying off or have laid off any workers.” It makes sense that these so-called “loud layoffs” have a chilling effect on the rest of the market — even though they aren’t actually indicative of bad news for the entire economy.
