Don't take it personal. Keep it positive and move on. One org's loss is another's gain. Explain it as a reduction in force and realignment with management. You are seeking new opportunities.

Listen... a man in Madagascar could stub his toe tomorrow, which then gets infected, causing him to go to the hospital, which is just enough to over-burden that country's medical system, which contributes to economic collapse, which changes the global supply chain distribution, which causes your company to lay you off without warning. . And none of that is contrived. We *literally* saw such a series of events happen twice now, one with a man eating a bat in China, and another with a man in Russia deciding to invade a neighboring country. We live in a world where 1 single person on the other side of the planet can make a decision -- or hell, maybe they sneeze... and this leads to the government shutting down your company. On a side note, if you've ever heard people warning against globalism, this is why. There's tons of benefits to having your iPhone made cheap and shipped over here, but there's also extreme detriments like this which are a part of the whole thing, and can't be avoided. Anyway, everything I just said is already well known and well understood by everyone reading right now. The only way you don't know this is if you've had your head in the sand for the last 20 years. This means the company you're applying to also knows this, so just explain it in short and sweet terms. When I apply somewhere, and they ask about gaps in my employment history, I just say "lockdown". They nod and immediately understand -- then often, with me saying just that one word, they tell me their own story of how their personal lives were wrecked by this very same phenomenon of inherent global economic instability. If you find this interesting, you might also like www.gameanalogy.com

Every person that told me their termination was "totally unexpected" at some point was clearly expecting it. They were just surprised they finally got the can. Maybe you are the only innocent criminal in jail.

I mean, the phrase "non performance-related reduction in force" covers everything just well enough. It's not like you were gonna accidentally include them in a potential reference check anyway.