The news of major U.S. job losses in March is ominous for a number of workforce management reasons.

The U.S. Labor Department said Friday, April 4, that the American economy lost 80,000 payroll jobs in March. That was worse than expected and the biggest one-month loss in five years. Payroll employment figures also were revised to show greater job losses for January and February, and the unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent in February to 5.1 percent in March.

The first problem with these numbers is they suggest companies are ignoring the sage advice to try to weather the economic storm by limiting layoffs or avoiding them altogether. Instead of taking a near-term hit to profits and investing in long-term growth, companies seem to be cutting jobs heavily.

Such short-term thinking could come back to haunt U.S. firms. Jettisoning talent and potentially damaging morale for remaining workers can cripple companies and their ability to bounce back in better times. Stanford University business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says companies tend to give up people too easily in downturns only to pay a steep price for talent during good times. “You should not do what most companies seem to do, which is buy high and sell low,” Pfeffer says. “There’s an unwillingness for companies to behave counter-cyclically.”

McGill University management professor Henry Mintzberg argues that the U.S. penchant for axing workers gives Europe an edge in recovering from a recession. “Europe is better prepared. Much better,” Mintzberg says. “The soul of the enterprise is much more intact in Europe. There’s much more respect for the idea of collective effort there.”

Then there are “tragedy of the commons” concerns about widespread layoffs. Each job cut can help push the overall U.S. economy into recession—or deeper into one—as consumer spending and confidence suffer.

U.S. stagnation in turn threatens to tip other parts of the world into economic trouble. Asian companies and economies depend heavily on the spending of U.S. consumers and businesses.

A vicious circle can come into play, as foreign countries’ woes afflict U.S. exporters and further depress the American economy.

To be sure, some companies can’t help but lay off workers in dire circumstances. And economic turmoil requires government leadership in addition to smart actions by businesses. What’s more, there are some enlightened companies that behave “counter-cyclically.”

But are there enough to keep the U.S. economy from sliding further?