This is a good question, and if you just look at it from a surface level the companies that were stupid enough to over-hire, are also stupid enough to lay off for no measurable ROL (return on layoff).

But if you look at it through lens of the billionaire investor/shareholder(1), you see that layoffs have an ulterior motive. I believe the tech companies collectively see this as an opportunity to lower the median compensation and mitigate the leverage tech employees have gained in the last few years.

Why is a billionaire investor concerned about individual Google employees making $300,000? Because if competition is lower for talent, you don't have to pay people as much giving the company more money to buy back shares and other things to enrich investors.

The elite who are exempt from the gravity of every day life don't want us wage slaves to have the power to continuously gain more compensation or more flexibility in our chosen work environment. They would absolutely pay us all minimum wage if we would accept it and they could get away with it.

As long as their pockets stay full, they don't care how empty yours are.

(1) Letter to Sundar Pichai from TCI Management Limited: https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/...

The market tanked and it's an opportunity to cut back compensation packages that they feel are too generous.

For the last ~6 months the Fed has been beating it over corporate leaders' heads that inflation is a big deal and it's being caused by "high salaries", and begged them for hiring freezes and layoffs to fix it.

Investors have cited the first reason[1], as have some executives.

Interest rates/inflation/recession are economy and industry wide excuses to cutback on the positive gains the labor market has made over the last few years. People who own and run companies think workers are making too much money.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34476909

Article seems to take much from this: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-la...

It's very simple - no more near-zero interest loans. That's it.

Considering which companies are doing the layoffs, and how surveillance capitalism is finally becoming a mainstream talking point, I was under the impression these were an effort to bunker down ahead of major income disruptions related to regulation against tracking and selling PII. Maybe that's wishful thinking.