Recession and layoffs are slightly different. I view the more proximate cause of layoffs etc is the increase in the cost of capital and more of a feeling that there might be a slowdown. Company execs, boards and investors had a different denominator in their projections about present value of cash flows in Q4 of last year (this is always an approx calc in practice, but the mechanics / views follow the equations) and now investments that might have made sense may not. People are calculating the risks of recession differently. All of this is idiosyncratic to each company. Some companies may be operating in a domain where it makes sense to invest or for larger companies based on their estimations, and in large companies you may have some bets that make sense to expand and others that should shrink.