There is a ton of noise in data like this. Also, large companies don't hire the same way and for the same reason as smaller companies. 1. A lot of job postings

There is a ton of noise in data like this. Also, large companies don't hire the same way and for the same reason as smaller companies. 1. A lot of job postings are fake. They are meant to keep recruuting pipelines open. There can be a long delay between posting an ad, getting applicants, filtering them, doing phone screens, doing interviews, doing team-matching, extending an offer, negotiating that offer, having it accepted and that candidate start. It can easily take months. You may start recruiting before you have a position to fill. Or you may hire proactively; 2. You can't discount the effect of visa job postings. This is where you have to "prove" you can't fill a job with a US resident or citizen. One thing you have to do is post a job. There's a whole cottage industry in posting these jobs in obscure places (eg newspapers, caulk boards in obscure places in an office) and in finding legally valid way to reject applicants. 3. Smaller companies will have positions to fill. Larger companies have hiring targets and budgets, fill positiosn and then figure out what to do with them. 4. Part of all the above is large companies definitely over-hire as normal practice in case people are needed for something and to deny those people to other employers. What we're seeing now is a reduction in that over-hiring buffer plus some virtue signaling layoffs all while having a useful opportunity to attack labor costs. It's a double bonus.