As many comments have already pointed out, all these companies are sitting on a huge cushion of money, and if you have money the best moment to invest is during a crisis. Companies realized a long time ago that they should find ways of lowering salaries, now the big moment finally came it seems.
Wouldn't be anything too new:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/24/306592297...
As is too often the case, the cost of getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar are dwarfed by the savings over time so no reason to think they will avoid doing similar things in the future.
Are we at the beginning, middle or end of it? Investing broadly at the beginning of a crisis that has the signs of being deep is less advised.
This is the real take away, imo. It seems like a controlled, insider effort to combat wage growth.
I essentially didn’t get a pay raise after a year of stellar performance reviews because of inflation, and with these layoffs I’m no longer in a position of bargaining power to ask for more.