This kind of conspiratorial thinking is a fib people say to make themselves feel better. "financial results aren't very good" is the leading cause of death of most companies -- you can't just gloss over it as if preventing it isn't the leading root cause.

The truth is that companies could afford a lot more less ROI positive resource investments, and yes that even extended to hiring. Now that companies are in a situation far rougher than anything we've seen in the past 15 years (end of zero interest rate policy and cheap funding), companies are scrambling to cut costs and maximize ROI on their existing costs, so that they don't die. They have to, now.