It's really interesting how different the job market is across countries. Unemployment in Denmark is still really low (2.9% [1]) of the top of my head I can't think of a single industry that isn't still hiring, except there's no one to hire.

I'd really like to know why there's such a huge different between e.g. the US, UK and Denmark. It may have to do with declining population in Denmark. Or maybe US companies over-hired, because they could, but those people would have had to go somewhere else.

[1] https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/arbejde-og-indkomst/be...

if you look at the data, big tech employment grew a ton 2019-2022 and has been flat since.

the layoffs are just a way to clean house while remaining roughly the same size.

"Fluff" refers to the role. Ideally those people could be moved around to non-"fluffy" roles, but that's not always possible. Losing one's job is always a blow to one's dignity, and ultimately it may be better for those companies not to create those roles to begin with (of course, sometimes roles aren't fluffy when they are created, but become that way over time, eg, pandemic hiring). The truth is we have to have both eyes open when it comes to the value our roles provide to the company that hired us, and plan accordingly.