Basically the company realized they couldn't finish their customer projects and meet deadlines with the 3 people they kept out of a team of 10 originally… So they have offered several people to come back on contract for a few months at double their original hourly rate (we have an ex employee group chat).
The employees that survived the layoffs however are still making far less… even by industry standards… So I've privately notified them all of what the contract workers are being paid so they can hopefully negotiate a better rate.
Just a friendly reminder to help your coworkers out, no one should have to deal with this kind of shit.