> If they were actually hiring they could have easily shifted existing workers into those.

I wouldn't assume that it's appropriate to shift people in a layoff to new roles within a company. I remember, when working at Intel, that some people were given opportunity (and preference) to apply to internal roles before being asked to leave.

That being said, not everyone is a good fit to transition to open roles. Other times, a certain amount of headcount turnover is healthy. (I personally felt like a lot of Intel's woes were due to the organization being too insular; and a certain amount of turnover would have helped them.)