Pushing string vs. Pulling them

One wonders whether Paul Krugman, who has probably never worked outside academia (his NYT post included), has ever bothered to at least talk to someone who had.

Whenever we've gone through a slow period and had to lay people off, it always came as a shock to the victims no matter how bad the powers that be made it sound in an effort to get the least senior (it's a union shop) to get ready. They didn't have anything lined up, they weren't looking, they were unprepared to bargain for, say, references.

Whenever we have gone through an expansion phase, we always find people working surprisingly below their potential who gladly come to work for more money even if they aren't 100% qualified the first day. When expanding, you are usually just trying to keep up and so you need willing learners much more than experienced sages, thus no need for prospective employees to become unemployed and go to school to get in on the boom.

The first comment on the linked thread points this out in an amusingly sideways fashion. Another comment further on down translates it to English.

Perhaps a much simpler explanation is ...

You don't create unemployment by hiring people.

Seriously, Paul basically just asked "Why doesn’t hiring people create the same unemployment that firing does?"

James Hamilton does his normal excellent job. But still, the sterile language of these professional economists does much to cover the fact that we are talking about some serious psychological trauma going on out there.