Nope, most of it propaganda and taking data from the wrong sources and wrong target population. Cost cuts happen in many places but that does not imply that the entire country is doing bad. Recession has been brought up several times just to poke doubt into people's minds and make them sell their assets so the market becomes more liquid for the whales to buy and allow banks to take over.
There is an economic slow down in many parts of the world but that does not mean that we are going into a recession but the slow down is real but it is not about putting doubt on anybody but there are certain factors including the trade war between US and China and the weakened crude oil price and we might not see any change in that in the next few years and these things will have an impact on the economy who are dependent on oil.
Companies lay off employees for a reason. They will never lay off the top level cream because that would hurt the company's condition. The fact is that the ones who are laid off know very well why they got laid off but they always tend to brush it under the table and play victim. Bottom line is that one needs to work up the ladder and take care of their own self, making sure to earn and keep good relations with every employee to be in a company.
It all depends upon which sector you are talking about, in any company they might not release the best employees but there will be a certain lay off if the business is dull and even in the last recession the companies did lay off top officials who are drawing huge salaries to cut down the cost and it was a main theme during that period.