Not unprofitable is not a measure of success for a CEO. More profitable than last quarter is.

I don't disagree with your statement per se, but neither "being more profitable than last quarter" or "the current CEO needs to be successful" imply "these companies need people to leave".

That is one of the possible ways of making "line go up".

But when I hear that a company __needs__ to make an X number of employees go, it gives me the impression they are in the red, and/or the organization will suffer great damage if they don't proceed with it. The organization doesn't even need to be a business per se.

Saying "those companies want to fire employees to increase profits" IMO is more accurate, even if a bit more verbose.