I wonder how these mass layoffs are going to affect junior level hiring. Obviously, they're going to have an effect across all hiring, but the particular dynamic is interesting to me.

I have friends who worked in investment banking in 2008, and several of them have talked about how the industry (or at least their perception of it) became more "diamond-shaped." By this they meant that past the initial hiring freezes, entry-level hiring eventually picked up as normal, but that senior level promotions took a while to pick back up. There was a glut of experienced VPs (more of a mid-level role in IB than in engineering) who were making lateral moves between banks—not competing for entry level roles—but none of them were moving up to higher positions.