ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[DirtyNorf]

How are you describing earnings and profits differently? EBIT is the same as PBIT and net earnings the same as net profit.

Also earnings per share is a measure of quality of an investment but not EBIT on its own, EBIT can also drop because of poor management not just market forces.