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This happens all the time in the US at the State level, through contractors. The vast majority of IT workers are H1Bs directly sourced to State IT projects due to the push to decrease the State workforce. Each H1B contracted is not another employee, thus it appears the workforce is being reduced. Good PR. Costs go up tremendously, the Contractor makes a ton and every two years or less we see a complete turnover of project teams and have to start over. It takes over two years to master our existing systems and learn what is expected, and IT is contracted o replace it with a more modern one. The contractors never learn the existing one and completely switch out just before utter failure. I've watched the cycle several times.