The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), instrumental in NASA’s deep space and Mars missions, is saying farewell to 325 employees after canning over half a thousand people earlier this year.
A statement to all employees said the layoffs will impact “technical, business, and support areas of the laboratory. “JPL, co-owned and financed by NASA and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is inseparable from American space exploration.
JPL manufactured Mars rovers – Perseverance and Curiosity – that still roam the red planet today. The lab also operates NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which allows communication with the farthest human-made objects, such as the Voyager space probes.
“This is a message I had hoped not to have to write. I’m reaching out to share the difficult news that JPL will be taking a workforce action […], resulting in a layoff of approximately 325 of our colleagues, or ~5% of our workforce,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin said in a memo to employees.
The main reason behind the downsizing, Leshin explained, was the labs’ need to meet next year’s budget allocation, which forces the organization to “tighten our belts across the board, and you will see that reflected in the layoff impacts.”
In early 2024, JPL fired 530 staff members, which made up 8% of its workforce, and said farewell to 100 contractors. However, Leshin said she believes it’s the last “workforce action” the lab will face in the foreseeable future, leaving JPL with 5,500 employees under its roof.
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