NASA Details Hundreds Of 'Painful But Necessary' Layoffs For Jet Propulsion Lab

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced hundreds of layoffs, calling the move “painful but necessary.” The news came via a workforce statement and memo to JPL employees.

JPL has been on the forefront of space exploration for decades. It was a camera, engineered by the space agency, on Voyager 1 that was able to capture the pale blue dot of Earth from 3.7 billion miles away. It was also corrective optics engineered by JPL engineers that brought the Hubble Space Telescope into focus. However, even with its storied past, it is not safe from today’s budget woes affecting many companies.

In the statement sent to employees, the space agency remarked, “While we have taken various measures to meet our current FY’25 budget allocation, we have reached the difficult decision to reduce the JPL workforce through layoffs.” It continued, “These are painful but necessary adjustments that will enable us to adhere to our budget while continuing our important work for NASA and our nation.”

The statement added that the reduction will affect approximately 325 employees, or 5% of its workforce. The layoffs will occur across technical, business, and support areas of the Laboratory.

In a memo addressing the layoffs, JPL Director Laurie Leshin remarked the number of layoffs was actually lower than projected a few months ago. Leshin added the workforce assessment conducted as part of the process was both extensive and thorough.

Leshin’s memo also addressed how JPL arrived at having to make the layoffs. She explained, “During our last town hall, I discussed our continued funding challenges and projections of what the potential on our workforce could look like.”

The director indicated that the space agency had been working through multiple workforce scenarios to attempt to address the shortcomings, and that it was trying to do everything it could, in partnership with NASA and elsewhere, to minimize the adverse effects on JPL’s capabilities and team.

Leshin went on to add, “Unfortunately, despite all these efforts, we need to make one further workforce reduction to meet the available funding for FY’25.”

The memo from Leshin concluded with explaining what will happen beginning today, November 13, 2024. She remarked, “Unless notified otherwise, all employees are required to work from home tomorrow Nov. 13, regardless of their telework status.”

Leshin went on to say that today employees will be invited to a short, virtual, Lab-wide meeting with her and Deputy Director Leslie Livesay at 9:30am. During that meeting the employees will learn where JPL is in the process of carrying out the layoffs, and what to expect.