[giraffe_lady]

This is the second time in these comments I've seen this distinction held out as self-evidently meaningful. I sincerely do not understand, can someone please explain why laying off salaried workers matters but hourly ones does not?

[bern4444]

It is the nature of contract work to be temporary. A full time employee is definitionally a stricter contract between employer and employee that is expected to continue for a longer period of time and represents a more binding commitment.

There is a meaningful distinction between the expected nature of the role and benefits of a contractor vs full time employee.

This isn't to say that laying off contractors doesn't matter, but its not unexpected or as good of a means to understand a company's outlook.

[tmellon2]

Generally speaking the average annual wage of corporate workers (mostly engineers) will be in the six figures. Hourly wage workers take home (on average) median US annual wages. So laying of 10000 engineers (in terms of immediate $ costs) is the equivalent of laying of approximately 30000 to 50000 hourly wage workers.