[bachmeier]

> Being fired is for cause.

More generally, fired is used for anything specific to the individual, whether for cause (they were incompetent) or other reasons (the boss didn't like them). Laid off is for a departure due to company reasons (lack of demand for their product).

[singlow]

Technically "for cause" means anything other than when the position is eliminated. So usually "laid off" means that the total headcount is being reduced, or that being reallocated to other tasks, so employees that are no longer needed are laid off.

If you fire a 500 person team and intend to replace them with new people who do the same thing, it's not really a lay-off, but for legal purposes they probably have to treat it as a lay-off in terms of severance / unemployment compensation because I doubt they can document an actual cause for most of them.