SSM is also working with external developers which can explain the big amount of employee.
They are, but I honestly don't expect that to be something that takes a lot of people from them. A lot of the time, it's publishing, give them resources, marketing, help ease of use for PS4. It's not as if they send 5-10 developers to each game they help out with. To me, they have two teams. I fully expect GOW to be announced at PSX with a February/March 2017 release and team 2 to release its game by the end of 2018.
Toro said:
Check "PlayStation Jobs" and "Naughty Dog Jobs" on Twitter. They are hiring, hiring, hiring. Same goes for Sony Santa Monica and Sucker Puch. It's funny that people here on Gaf only talk about the layoffs and they think the studio stops growing. These studios are hiring all the time. Especially Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica (shortly after the layoffs).
Also, it makes sense to fire some people from SSM and ES. One screwed up on a AAA budget title that lost them millions, and the other looked like they had monkeys running their online infrastructure for some time despite it being a major focus. Some people did not do a good job and need to be replaced with better options. I liked Stig from SSM but he failed unfortunately and then left once the main project didn't work out. Now, there is a new director in charge.
Anyways, I hope Evolution Studios is making a new game instead of updating Driveclub again. Maybe they are building the prototype now and will start hiring heavily soon so we can get a new game from them in 2017-2018.