It's difficult to say, from this article, whether they are actually laying off these admins or whether they are reducing the number of people with administrator

It's difficult to say, from this article, whether they are actually laying off these admins or whether they are reducing the number of people with administrator access. I don't see many downsides to reducing the number of people with administrator access. The more administrators there are the more possibility there is for abuse as it is normally very easy for administrators to bypass audit controls as well as, obviously, access controls. The rule of least privilege should apply. Call me cynical of the human race but I worry more about rogue admins selling information to criminal elements than cutting off would-be whistleblowers.