Or maybe they intentionally inflated their hiring goal for two reasons:
1) they want to give the impression that upgrades will continue, fast and furious and
2) they can join the legions of airline executives who continue trotting up to capital hill and beat on congress to lower the hiring minimums, because they're not able to "meet their hiring goals". If SOME regional airlines ARE able to meet their hiring goals it makes it tougher on the RAA to get the minimums reduced.