Originally Posted by jsloan

Laying off a large number of people would cause a rise in your unemployment insurance premiums, but to the extent, if any, that this is financially motivated, it's more likely to be about avoiding severance pay. I don't know United's severance policy, but if it's like most large companies, I imagine it's based on X weeks of pay for every Y years of service. But that's just speculation -- there can be a lot of non-financial motivations to offer a program like this too. Even if you don't save a single dollar over involuntary separations, every resignation may mean one fewer layoff -- one more person who really needs the job who gets to keep it, perhaps.