[johnnyanmac]

>So they won't return to the company that laid them off, but that doesn't mean they won't work for a different company that laid off other people.

Sure, but I think the point is less "companies that layoff lose good employees for good" and more "if you layoff employee you lose that tribal knowledge forever". Is that something that a company will die from? Probably not, at least not in one fell swoop. But having half the people feel that way is some non-neglible brain drain.

Remember that part of the original reason the Big companies paid that much was as an anti-poaching measure. They didn't want competition getting top talent nor for top talent to be future competitors as they startup their own business. I wonder if the latter is going to pop up more with these kinds of movements.