Real answer: I don't know.

Possibilities:

They need to put a front up that they are hiring. Not hiring opens up a can of worms and negative thought processes among the employees that would likely increase attrition, something they may not want due to the potential reasons I mentioned above.

They are hiring to help cover attrition among FO's. Our FO's have left in droves since things have gone south. FO's with the least time vested leave because they have the least to lose and the most potential gain by going elsewhere. The company needs to prop these numbers up a bit, again, due to the previously mentioned possibilities. It's certainly not done altruistically to move people up on reserve.

Frankly it all hinges on, and points to, expected rapid upward movement in the near future. Otherwise, things are not sustainable the way they are operating now. They cannot carry the overage. The pilots will not stand for the continued abuse and leave as fast as they can. Right now, the only thing keeping people is the possible fart-in-the-wind promise that things are supposed to get moving soon. The company is wasting an absurd amount of money paying 35% of the pilots 75 hours to be on reserve while only giving them 20-30 hours actual flying, paying for those benefits, and not getting a return on the investment. By all rights they should have furloughed, there are too many pilots and there's not enough flying.

Either they're inept and got their MBA's in a Happy Meal, or there's a reason for keeping everyone here. Hopefully it's a good reason, and not just treating everyone like a s s and keeping the staffing up to cover attrition.