NASA JPL Lays Off Hundreds Of Employees Towards The End Of The Year

JAKARTA The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), one of NASA's research centers, has again laid off. This time, there are hundreds of employees who will be laid off before the year ends.

JPL director Laurie Leshin, through a special memo for employees uploaded on official websites, said they would reduce 325 employees or about five percent of JPL's workforce in technical, business, and laboratory support.

Leshin explained that reducing the number of employees was a difficult decision, but this needed to be done to adjust budget needs. If these layoffs are not carried out, all important jobs on JPL could be disrupted in the future.

"While this is very difficult for our community, this number is lower than projected a few months ago, thanks in part to the hard work of many people on JPL," Leshin said in his memo.

Prior to layoffs, JPL had conducted a thorough labor assessment. Leshin explained that they reduce employees by considering competition, mission needs, and the need for core capabilities in all laboratories.

"While we will never have perfect insight into the future, I truly believe that after this action, we will be at a more stable labor level to move forward," said Leshin.

After making the decision, JPL sent an email to all its employees to tell whether they were affected by layoffs or not. Next, JPL will give the affected employees time to discuss work allowances and other assistance.

"Our focus will continue to be on empowering managers to support their teams through this action and equiping us all with various resources as we move forward together," explained Leshin.