I'm not sure exactly what was intended by the poster but I suspect it is related to the employment taxes associated with an employee vs a 1099 contractor or ext

I'm not sure exactly what was intended by the poster but I suspect it is related to the employment taxes associated with an employee vs a 1099 contractor or external vendor. In addition to the different tax treatment labor law regulations are significantly different between those two types of staff with the contractor/external vendor being much less restrictive than for employees. I haven't seen many details in most news stories about layoffs in the tech industry regarding contractors, but I suspect that the number of contractors terminated is significant also as those positions tend to be trimmed before employees.