What does laid off mean?

Laid off means someone is temporarily suspended or permanently terminated from employment for business reasons such as downsizing or personnel management. Laid off can refer to a single person or a group of people, depending on the size of the layoff.

Although being laid off seems similar to being fired, it is not the same. They both deal with the termination of employment, but firing occurs because of the employee's fault, and layoff is the employer's fault. Typically, this means that being laid off can be better for the employee when searching for future employment.