Laid off from ADM.

What ADM layoffs have meant for employees

Job cuts were one lever in the cost plan ADM laid out in its February 2025 release, beside cheaper manufacturing and lower spending on outside materials and services. ADM tied the Swiss trading desk cuts to that plan in a statement to Bloomberg, while the plant closings that followed came with their own explanations about its plant network. Restructuring and exit costs came to $283 million for 2025, with employee termination benefits among the main charges beside asset write-downs, according to ADM's 2025 annual report. The largest share, $207 million, sat in Nutrition, the business behind the Bushnell decision. In that February 2026 filing, ADM said it expected the program to deliver more than $500 million in savings by fiscal 2029.

ADM has explained these closings in terms of its plant network. For Bushnell, it said it would serve soy protein customers from a Decatur plant it had just brought back online and from other sites, according to its August 2025 release. In milling, ADM told Nebraska Public Media it had invested in new and upgraded plants such as Mendota, Illinois, while making difficult decisions to close others, and the Lincoln decision follows older mills it has shut in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and elsewhere. Even after Lincoln, ADM would remain the second-largest U.S. flour miller with 17 mills, KOLN reported. At Kershaw, ADM told WBTV its oilseeds network needed both upgrades and "difficult decisions" about consolidation. ADM's annual report adds a closing outside the U.S., the Tres Corações plant in Brazil, in July 2025. If you're at a plant ADM describes this way, it's worth asking whether its work is moving to a site where you could follow it.

Joint ventures are the other way ADM has been reshaping its plants. In 2025 it launched Plainsman Company with PYCO Industries around Lubbock, Texas, cottonseed processing and agreed with Alltech to launch a North American animal feed venture, and in December it agreed to contribute its Memphis cottonseed facility to one with Planters Cotton Oil Mill, according to the same annual report. If a venture that touches your plant launches, you can ask which company would employ you and what would happen to your ADM service, pay and benefits.

Plant towns feel these closings past the payroll. ADM had been part of Bushnell for more than 40 years. Officials there said its announcement caught them by surprise and expected the exit to hit city-owned utilities, and the area's development chief called a plant loss "detrimental to a community that's 3,000 people," WGEM reported. The original Lincoln plant went up in 1908. Losing work at a plant that old lands on a household and a town at the same time, and that's a lot to carry.

If your ADM job is ending, you can ask early for the terms in writing, from your last day to any transfer or severance offer and how long it stays open. If severance is part of that offer, it's also worth asking how long health coverage runs and whether the payment depends on signing a release. A move can mean a new town or a longer drive, and severance can mean starting over, so the better choice turns on things only you can weigh. Our WARN tracker shows where ADM and its units have filed, and our pages on layoffs in Illinois, Tennessee, Nebraska and South Carolina cover unemployment and help in the states where these closings fell.

A sourced history of ADM layoffs

• January 2026, Lincoln flour mill closing

  ADM said it would end flour milling in Lincoln, Nebraska, but keep packaging and extrusion there, and about 30 of 65 workers would lose jobs, Nebraska Public Media reported.

• December 2025, Memphis cottonseed crushing notice

  ADM filed a Tennessee notice on December 19 covering 95 North Memphis workers, with closing set for late January 2026, per Action News 5. In a planned venture with Planters Cotton Oil Mill, ADM expected the oil refinery to keep running and crushing to end, its 2025 10-K says.

• August 2025, Bushnell soy protein plant

  ADM said it would gradually wind down its Bushnell, Illinois, soy protein plant and serve customers from a recommissioned Decatur plant and other sites, per its August 29 release. The plant had more than 30 employees, WGEM reported.

• By April 2025, trading desk cuts in Switzerland

  At least eight traders on ADM's desk in Rolle, Switzerland, had been let go, people familiar told Bloomberg, and ADM called the cuts part of the reduction it had announced earlier that year.

• April 2025, Kershaw soybean crush plant

  ADM said it would permanently end production at its Kershaw, South Carolina, crush plant that spring, telling WBTV the plant no longer fit its future operational needs.

• February 2025, cost program and global job cuts

  ADM set out to save $500 million to $750 million over three to five years through cheaper manufacturing, lower purchasing and about 600 to 700 role cuts worldwide in 2025, its fourth-quarter 2024 release said.

• August 2022, Keokuk, Iowa, milling plant closing

  ADM shut its Keokuk mill, where 70 full-time employees had worked, and said those who left would get severance and help finding other work, Tri States Public Radio reported.

• January 2012, global salaried workforce cut

  ADM said it would cut about 1,000 mostly salaried positions, 3 percent of its workforce, hoping early retirement offers in the U.S. would cover much of it, with severance and outplacement for others, its January 2012 release said.

What to do if you're laid off from ADM

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. ADM's biggest hubs: Illinois, Tennessee, Nebraska. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what ADM's hub states run: Illinois, Tennessee, Nebraska, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.