I was talking to a friend over the weekend about Union Pacific and constant layoffs in a time of good results, and he said his old company used to do that all the time - get rid of people in anticipation of a downturn.
But when you think about, it's really a self-fulfilling prophecy in this case. UP is laying off people, which will affect operations in the long run, which will cause a downturn, for which those on top will pet themselves on the back for predicting - despite the fact they'll be the ones who caused it. And from there they will continue their "winning" strategy.
Basically, they win and we lose in any case.