JPL Faces November Layoffs, Third Round This Year

On November 13, JPL laid off 325 employees, or 5% of its workforce. This is the Lab’s third round of layoffs in 2024: first was the January reduction of 100 on-site contractors, followed by the February layoffs of 530 employees and 40 additional contractors. As a result, the JPL workforce currently stands at roughly 5,500 employees.

These reductions stem from a funding crisis for the Mars Sample Return mission, which intends to collect rock and dust samples from Mars and analyze them on Earth. Last year, $822 million was provided for the mission, but NASA was directed to anticipate only $300 million for fiscal year (FY) 2024. Originally, $949 million was designated for the mission as per the President’s FY 2024 Budget Request. Citing their concerns in a Senate Report from July 2023, congressional appropriations committees felt “alarmed” at how the expected launch schedule for MSR “continues to slip” even with steady funding—hence the $300 million figure.

In his letter to the Caltech community, President Thomas Rosenbaum assured that JPL leadership and HR have been working with “each and every affected employee” to make the post-layoffs transition “as smooth as possible.” Rosenbaum highlighted that the Lab continues to operate “more than three dozen missions” in space exploration, with “another 17 missions” in the pipeline.