For developers, sure. For other professionals, the market is not white hot. From the article, it looks like it was mostly commercial brokers and brokerage supporting staff who were laid off. I don't know the job market in NYC, so I can't comment on how hard it will be for them to find another job (after they were hired in late 2014 for this one).
As far as "the 37Signals way", that path isn't right (or even available) to every company.
As far as "the 37Signals way", that path isn't right (or even available) to every company.