No reasonable company will wanna lay off it's experienced workers that have immersed themselves to the rudiments of their job just to go employ newly graduated folks who have little or no experience. There could be more to their reasons of lay off than the assumptions you're making.  I am suspecting a large introduction of AI tools and robots into the company in carrying out certain functions and duties which could have led to a needlessness of continually having a high number of employees. And to this end, it's those with no much self upgrade that would be singled out for that exercise.