The number, 336, is roughly 10% of their employees - which is pretty much exactly the number that Jack Welch recommended turning over each year to improve the work force.<p>I often wonder whether these &quot;layoffs&quot; aren&#x27;t actually layoffs, but simply performance based assessments. It&#x27;s not like Twitter is shutting down an entire office, or abandoning some technology, and letting everyone associated with that office&#x2F;technology go - presumably they are being selective on other factors as to who they let go - and I&#x27;m guessing that performance is likely a key factor.<p>If, over the next year, twitter doesn&#x27;t hire back that 10%, or hires employees in different technologies&#x2F;positions (I.E. Web developers instead of thick client developers, sales people instead of developers, etc...) - then this is a layoff. But, if headcount returns to the same number, in roughly the same job areas, then this is just a performance based annual rank&#x2F;yank process.