Did you stop to think that your employer is still employing half of his people. If he takes no steps to save the company, all employees would eventually lose their jobs.
If reducing the number of employees saves the company, he will more than likely rehire to at least the original number.
Unless you have owned a small business during stressful economic periods, you have no idea what the owner goes through.
I was responding in the affirmative to a poster who said what a government shutdown does to a successful economy and business.
I was not criticizing what a business has to do to survive when confronted with these circumstance.