Layoffs - A complete mess made by the companies

From the last few days there were talks going on about layoffs in Morgan Stanley. Some 7% of the global staff will be handed over the pink slip in this week. Well... It started happening from today ... Few colleagues from my department were laid, and the reason being "company is trying to survive in the market, company is planning the road ahead by taking such bold steps". When this was announced, my anxiety shot up the next level and I couldn't wait for the meeting to finish. The past few years have not been great for the business worldwide due to which many companies are forced to take such steps. These companies just have been doing a hiring spree from the last 1-2 years that now they are regretting their decisions and letting off their employees. My question is - "If a company hires excessively during the bull market and is forced to lay off few of the employees during the downturn, has the company made an error by not evaluating the headcount or it was just simply the need of the hour" Please note - I know many people out there who have faced job cuts due to many factors, sincerely requesting people to take this matter very seriously

I am really curious why there are so many layoffs in the IT industry. Wherever you see, big companies like CISCO are laying off so many employees. Experts on Grapevine, please explain what is going on.

Being an investor in equity markets, i was aware of the fact that US market will crash as the free money by fed draws back. I obviously was not able to link this up with the funding dry-ness. I still expect a founder to be aware of these economic events. I am curious how could the management decide to go for hiring employees only to lay them off a year later. If you are a founder, would be happy to know the other side of the story.

Is every company which is laying off is affected by recession?, or is it just using the opportunity(blaming recession) to cut down the work force which increased due to over hiring?

What causes so many large companies to lay off their employees, even when they have enough work for the employees? Why do companies want to have fewer people working for them? Can any expert provide their opinion?

Just an open ended question on why are layoffs happening on such a scale. I personally feel the skill to salary ratio has fucked up so much lately that the companies are having to fire people who are essentially useless to them. More of liabilities than just assets! What do you think?

Do you think instead of laying off employees , its better to cut some % of employees salary which can be given after certain duration?

I am seeing a lot of layoff related posts everywhere from news articles to LinkedIn.. Is the Job market really that bad now? Or just the media is projecting that way? If it's really bad, which department you think is the most affected? How's layoffs specifically in India? Or is it layoffs in US but more hiring in India due to cost cutting? Are layoffs in technology/engineering dept as in for developers or some other departments? Your thoughts please..