This article is really about the layoffs, rather than the removal of the job postings. Obviously that'd be the case: what else is there to talk about other than that there were some job postings, but they aren't there anymore?

It's become pretty common to use job postings as a diagnostic or predictive source. I remember when I first noticed an article inferring that such-and-such a company must be developing such-and-such a type of video game, because they were hiring for people with particular technical skills which implied a certain development path. I thought "oh, that's clever, I never would have thought to monitor job boards to learn about the future, but it makes sense". Now that practice of reporting on hiring is just de rigeur across coverage of many different industries, I think.

I wonder if there will be some kind of response from companies, to try to hide or obfuscate such information—which may sometimes amount to a trade secret, or sometimes (as in this Tesla case) just a present kernel for bad publicity to form around. Maybe leaving up positions with no intention of filling them, or posting fake positions to send confusing signals to people watching you? They probably already do this, come to think of it.

The end result would be increased annoyance and frustration for people applying to those jobs.