[apohn]

You are correct that if you are unemployed and looking for a job it doesn't matter. All you see is increasing competition in the job seeker market and that sucks.

But it does matter for people who are employed and looking for jobs. If you are unhappy and/or underpaid at your current job, layoffs all caused by larger market forces might be interpreted as a hint that you should think about staying at a "safe" job unless you really hate it. However, if some significant portion of the the layoffs is due to recent over-hiring and that has now swung the other way into layoffs, changing jobs might be less risky.

[y-c-o-m-b]

> If you are unhappy and/or underpaid at your current job, layoffs all caused by larger market forces might be interpreted as a hint that you should think about staying at a "safe" job unless you really hate it.

That's an excellent point. I'm itching to leave my company at the moment, but I've avoided looking elsewhere because it's relatively "safe" (for now), so you're spot on. This also appears to be the case with literally everyone I've spoken to about the topic in my social circle. That being said, all those people have reported recent layoffs at their companies; across many different sectors and income brackets. My sister works in healthcare and said the hospital just sent out letters notifying everyone of upcoming layoffs.

[that_guy_iain]

I stayed at a company I hated for too long because it was safe - I was literally the only person who could fix the legacy system that was responsible for half of the company.

After I left, I realised how much of a negative effect the company was having on me. I had coworkers point it out and say they were sad about it but I never realised it myself until after I left and realised the difference just in my dreams nevermind all the other stuff.