Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced further job cuts on Tuesday, citing “ongoing funding challenges.”
The layoffs will affect 325 employees, or about 5% of JPL’s workforce, and will affect the space agency’s technical, business and support employees.
JPL Director Laurie Leshin said the layoffs will take place Wednesday, when all JPL employees were told to work from home.
Lesin said the number of planned layoffs is “lower than expected months ago, thanks in part to the hard work of so many people across JPL.”
“While the employee evaluations carried out as part of this process were extensive and thorough and will never give us complete insight into the future, following this action we are confident that we will reach more stable workforce levels going forward. I truly believe that,” Lesin wrote.
“Based on reduced budgets and projections of future work, we will need to tighten across the board, and you will see that reflected in the impact of staff reductions,” Lesin wrote.
“We believe this is the last laboratory-wide workforce measure we will have to take in the foreseeable future,” Lesin said, adding, “After this action, JPL’s full-time workforce will increase.” It will be about 5,500 people.” I believe this will continue to be a stable and supportable staffing level. You’ll never be 100% sure of your future budget, but you’ll be in a better position for future work. ”
The institute announced in February that it would cut more than 500 jobs. These cuts were partially due to cuts in federal funding that were expected to support the Mars Sample Return Program, a mission to retrieve soil and rock samples collected by Mars rovers and bring them to Earth for analysis. was promoted.
