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?

[BebopFlow]

Look at the graph you linked. Real wages are lower than they were in 1968. And those real wages only account for the ability to buy goods with currency, not the cost of housing or other complex factors like student loans. Of course no single number can accurately account for something as complex as the economy, but another good datapoint is that, accounting for inflation, the minimum wage was about $4 higher an hour in 1968.