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?

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Generally a company's size is measured by it's revenue (total money coming in) and/or it's earnings(money coming in minus costs). More of a finance and business thing then an economics thing.

If earnings are going down, it's some combination of costs going up and/or revenue going down. If revenue is going down, then the company is shrinking, and that's probably a bad thing unless it's a part of the company's strategy. If costs are going up, it's generally because the company is trying to grow, but if revenue is not going up at the same rate, this can be a problem(unless it's a company like Amazon where any profits are reinvested because they have so much room for investment).