content: Usually companies perform layoffs as a cost cutting measure, not to simply reduce employment. For an increasing number of companies today this is no longer the case. Intel is right now doing excellently. Their gross profit margins are north of 60% and they're still seeing substantial growth. In my opinion this is going to be a consequence of worker productivity. When they can produce the same output with thousands less employees, those employees get fired. We're seeing similar things throughout other companies in the tech industry. Some of these jobs are getting shipped to India, but many seem to be simply disappearing at the same time that more people than ever are looking to enter into the industry.