And while many of them will eventually get new jobs, it's going to take some retraining (not a whole lot of demand for train engineers these days), and time.
I get what you're saying, but...does it? If I look at global real GDP, we're going along, business as usual.
As the OP says, jobs are gained and lost on a much greater scale, monthly. There's a reason that jobs are being shed at this particular company, and it isn't because we no longer need transportation infrastructure. Bombardier is out, Tesla is in.
Pump the brakes there. The next time you ride the subway or take a commuter flight you won't be riding on a Tesla train car or aircraft. I get that the average HN visitor is enamored with Elon and Tesla, but c'mon now.
;)
My point is, Bombardier fires and across the map Tesla hires.
I'm the furthest thing from a Tesla pumper if you are so inclined as to look at my comment history.
People do not like negative situation that they can visualize easily themselves into it. Losing a job is something that can happen to everyone, has a big impact. That is why it's in the news.
Does firing 1000 people have a more than 2x effect than firing 500?
Unless by exponential, you just mean "a lot".