Why so many layoffs recently?

Rapid7, Bishop Fox, and HackerOne were some of the most prominent firms to roll out a recent wave of layoffs, some laying off up to 18% of their employees. I know the news often makes mistakes on verbiage, but based on the fact that they talked about laying off 'employees', I assume they're talking about actual employees, not just contractors.

Thoughts on why this might be happening and what this means or indicates for the field?

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