Goldman Sachs expects layoffs to keep rising—and says investors are punishing the stocks of companies that slash staff

There used to be two types of layoffs: Those that investors cheered, and those that they panned. The first category—which involved the announcement of some sort of strategic restructuring—have long been associated with a pop in the stock. Meanwhile if the layoffs were due to declining sales and rising costs, investors would sell. But recently Goldman Sachs’ analysts have picked up on a new twist. “Linking recent layoff announcements to public companies’ earnings reports and stock market data, we find th ...