It's likely opportunistic. Sentiment is important for stakeholders. When others in the market are doing it and improving ratios, shareholders are going to ask

It's likely opportunistic. Sentiment is important for stakeholders. When others in the market are doing it and improving ratios, shareholders are going to ask questions if you aren't doing the same. It's also the ideal time as your employees that stay do not blame the company but rather the market and you can maintain a positive culture, the staff you want to keep are also less likely to jump ship as they presume others are not hiring in this market. Big organisations scenario plan and it's likely they had an emergency retrenchment plan up their sleeves in case they needed it, which can explain how they were able to execute so fast. It also explains why there are some strange decisions taken.