JPL announces more job cuts, laying off over 300 people

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced further layoffs Tuesday, citing “continued funding challenges.”

The latest round of layoffs will affect 325 employees, approximately 5% of JPL’s workforce, affecting those in the technical, business and support areas of the space agency.

JPL Director Laurie Leshin said the layoffs will occur on Wednesday, when all JPL employees were instructed to work from home.

Leshin said that the number of planned layoffs “is lower than projected a few months ago thanks in part to the hard work of so many people across JPL.”

“The workforce assessment conducted as part of this process has been both extensive and thorough, and although we can never have perfect insight into the future, I sincerely believe that after this action we will be at a more stable workforce level moving forward,” Leshin wrote.

“With lower budgets and based on the forecasted work ahead, we had to tighten our belts across the board, and you will see that reflected in the layoff impacts,” Leshin wrote.

“I believe this is the last cross-Lab workforce action we will need to take in the foreseeable future,” according to Leshin. “After this action, we will be at about 5,500 JPL regular employees. I believe this is a stable, supportable staffing level moving forward. While we can never be 100% certain of the future budget, we will be well positioned for the work ahead.”

The lab in February announced layoffs of more than 500 people. Those cuts were prompted in part by a reduction in federal dollars that were anticipated in support of the Mars Sample Return program, a mission to retrieve soil and rock samples collected by a Mars rover and bring them to Earth for analysis.