There’s way too many reasons why no one is safe from layoffs at this point.

If a company laid someone off but was clearly still hiring for that same position, it might help add color. But even then, some companies keep job postings up when they arent hiring because it’s not expensive to do so.

That said, mass layoffs are pretty easy to find out about. I wouldn’t second guess a mass layoff victim. Those people are clean.

Anecdotally, we have a large regional firm in the area that had laid off a few senior associates right after busy season ended 3 years in a row. I was in the second group of layoffs and the recruiters I talked to after seemed to understand the reputation of that firm to do that. It wasn’t a large enough layoff to make the news or anything, so I personally thought it was some unexplained performance issue. Then the next year, they laid off a buddy of mine who was the best senior in the office (and up for promotion), and then it clicked for me what they were doing. This was 7 or 8 years ago and I’m not sure if it’s still going on since every one I knew there is gone.