There's a more simple explanation. Companies were hiring because they thought they were gearing up for a bunch of work and that there was gonna be a war for tal

There's a more simple explanation. Companies were hiring because they thought they were gearing up for a bunch of work and that there was gonna be a war for talent. I could be wrong, but at least Zuck seemed like a true believer in what he was doing; is there anyone that questions his over attachment to the Metaverse? (I understand he may have known this was a risk; possibly other execs were more aware, and looking forward to it). More to the point, it seems that companies were hiring because other companies were too. They didn't want to miss out on the party. Not an economist, but you see this behavior all the the time in markets. Then after the euphoria wears off they notice: 1. Ditching a lot of unprofitable segments starts to look attractive. The chance for growth could be pretty slim, especially in a slow market. 2. Some of these people are raking in massive salaries for jobs they could get anyone in to do. It looked to many people like the strategy was to buy up people to keep them off the market... not shocking to see the change in heart, which lead to: 3. All these activities were giving employees quite a bit of leverage, and potentially calling into question any managers that might have had "hold down the fort" roles. I remember having these conversations last summer. It wasn't 100% clear what was going to happen, but this wouldn't have been surprising; people knew. They did about the housing crash, too. It's popular to act like this was discovered by a lone genius, who goes against the crowd. My dad with no connections and basic financial literacy, with some eyes on real estate, predicted this since around 2000-2004. I remember growing up and hearing about the certain housing crash that was coming that was so obvious anyone could see it. (sure some specific points of failure may not have been obvious, but we knew what was going to happen)