WASHINGTON — NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lay off about 5% of its staff this week because of budget cuts, the second such major layoff at

JPL announces new round of layoffs

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2024-11-13 12:00:16

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lay off about 5% of its staff this week because of budget cuts, the second such major layoff at the center in less than a year.

In a memo to employees Nov. 12 that JPL later published online, center director Laurie Leshin announced that about 325 employees will be laid off this week to adjust to projected spending levels for fiscal year 2025. Affected employees will be notified Nov. 13 after a lab-wide virtual meeting.

“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,” she wrote.

This is the second round of staff layoffs at the lab, which is run by the California Institute of Technology for NASA. In February, JPL laid off 530 employees, or 8% of its workforce at the time, citing uncertainties about its fiscal year 2024 budget, in particular spending on the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program being led by the lab. At the time, House and Senate spending bills offered drastically different funding levels for MSR.

The February layoffs included 40 contractors as well as the 530 staff members. A month earlier, JPL laid off 100 contractors, again citing budget uncertainty.

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