[pc86]

This has baked into it the incredibly naïve (and generally accepted to be incorrect) assumption that layoffs are performance-based. There are plenty of examples of FAANG and other companies laying off folks with 15, 20, 30 years of incredibly specialized and presumably valuable experience but with a compensation price tag to match.

[red-iron-pine]

If anything it's a great time to shed well-paid fat. Hire a noob out of MIT for 1/2 price and hope that the Sr. gave the project enough legs and enough documentation to allow the NUG to figure it out.

aka keep wages down

[pc86]

I mean that's certainly part of it. If (and it's a big if) you can run a project for less money, you probably should.

However I'm not sure it's as large-scale a thought process as "let's keep industry wages as low as we can" and more "I will look good if I can trim my budget, so I'm going to try to do that." The effect is the same, generally, but not quite as nefarious.