Cutting hours but seeking new staff

LegacyUser

Heya, my employers recently had a meeting with me and another member of staff, privately, one after another. The meeting was held to inform us that things were getting tight and that they were gonna have to cut the hours some more. Also they informed us that they were open to talking about redundancy should any of us like to consider it. We both said no thanks and went back to work. Two days later, I got a text from a mate saying he seen an add for a job in my place of work, I checked myself, stunned, I seen and add for 2 jobs already held by staff already employed and another for a job which a number of already employed staff could easily do. Are employers aloud to act this way? I'm very confused and worried. In the last 2 years only one person has ever had any disciplinary action taking against them, so I really cant see the thought process here!

Bandana boy

Seems like somebody in the company believes that the skill set required to do/excel at the job does not exist in current staff and is preparing for a change.
Have seen it happen before ,make staff who are not performing at a level wanted/required redundant and re hire with a more stringent/higher spec so as to get around redundancy laws.

Could be a lazy way to take advantage of wage rates to skill set in current economy or a genuine concern that company is falling behind and needs an injection of new talent.

Has there been any new management hires recently ?

If you want to keep the job i would look honestly at your own performance and is there anything you could do to optimize your performance ?