A lot of answers for why the fed would want this but regarding your first question: The interest rate can be thought of as the “cost of money”. The higher it i

A lot of answers for why the fed would want this but regarding your first question: The interest rate can be thought of as the “cost of money”. The higher it is, the more expensive it is to get more money in the short term. This is why 0% was labeled “free” When companies have access to cheap money it is less risky to invest short term in long term growth. Generally “growth” is expensive up front and pays out over time. Also, hiring takes time so starting to grow happens on a lag. Now, we had a long span of cheap money so, companies not only planned to grow but they planned to keep growing. This meant they were hiring today for tomorrows growth. Money is no longer cheap. All of the future growth is a lot riskier so any hires made for that purpose are cut. Also any in-progress growth became risky, so some of those hires are cut too. Lastly, there is no growth after the current crop of projects so, as they complete, some or all of those hires are let go. Cheap money is risk free growth opportunities. Growth needed people. Expensive money is very risky belt-tightening opportunities. That leads to layoffs.