Decisions to cut staff in feature animation were made months ago, in reaction to expanding budgets and shrinking stock prices. So some companies now lay off valued employees the instant there is any down time. The situation that we therefore appear to have as a community, is a return to the system that animation artists had to endure many years ago. That is, the seasonal dumping of talent. The difference now being that animation production is not necessarily seasonal anymore.
Animation is in production all year long.
The expansion of the industry has been vast, and the catalyst has been the incredible creative talent that has been the driving the boom all along. The answer is obvious to anyone who has worked in the American animation industry for any length of time. Of course not. Nothing happens to them. They go on and on like the energizer bunny.