Laid off from AGCO.

What AGCO layoffs have meant for employees

In its Kansas and Minnesota layoffs, AGCO's explanation has been demand for its machines. In 2009 a softening market had forced it to keep evaluating production and its workforce to stay in line with supply and demand, a company release relayed by Farm Equipment said. In 2014 it blamed the farm economy's cycles in a statement Kansas Public Radio carried, while the Jackson plant's operations director pointed to falling corn and soybean prices in a Farm Equipment report. In 2024 AGCO told KSN it was aligning its workforce and production schedules with current demand after three strong years. If you build equipment at Hesston, Beloit or Jackson, those are the reasons AGCO gave in each of those layoffs, in nearly the same words in 2009 and 2024.

Hesston, where AGCO was Harvey County's largest employer with about 1,500 people in 2009, has seen its cuts come in stages. In 2009 and in 2014, a first layoff there was followed within two months by a larger one, so getting through an early round didn't settle where a downturn's cuts would end. The plant has called people back, too. By June 2010, after its recession layoffs and with markets abroad growing, Hesston was running overtime and had recalled 30 to 40 workers since January, director of operations Bill Kaltenberg said in a Rural Lifestyle Dealer report, about six months after the larger July 2009 cut. That one recall after one downturn is no forecast for the indefinite layoff AGCO announced at Hesston in October 2024.

The 2024 restructuring put its job target on AGCO's salaried workforce as a whole. Its first phase also set out to change the operating model for certain corporate and back-office functions, leaning more on technology and on what AGCO calls global centers of excellence, its June 2024 8-K said, and the company expected it to save $100 million to $125 million a year once fully implemented. Potential position eliminations are subject to legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction, the same filing said, and later phases could bring charges AGCO couldn't yet size. AGCO had incurred a substantial portion of the charges by the end of 2025, as its 2025 10-K puts it, yet its June 30, 2026 quarterly report logs fresh severance-related provisions in each of 2026's first two quarters. If your job is salaried, whether at the Duluth headquarters, at an office such as Tremont, Illinois or at a plant, those filings describe a program still adding severance costs in 2026.

When AGCO closed DeKalb in 2003, according to its 2003 10-K, the work moved to Jackson and some DeKalb employees relocated with it. If a closing ever ties your severance to staying until a scheduled date, as AGCO's DeKalb terms did, a job you're weighing that starts sooner is where that condition would bite, and it's worth knowing both dates when you weigh it.

AGCO's 2025 annual report lists its principal US plants at Beloit and Hesston in Kansas and at Jackson in Minnesota, with headquarters in Duluth, Georgia and an office in Tremont and a parts facility in Batavia, both in Illinois. For anyone claiming benefits where those sites are, there's more on Kansas unemployment benefits, Minnesota unemployment benefits, Georgia unemployment benefits and Illinois unemployment benefits. AGCO's own WARN filings in our WARN tracker carry the names AGCO, Agco, AGCO Corporation, AGCO CORP and a misspelled AGCO Croporation, which helps when you're looking for one that covered your site.

A sourced history of AGCO layoffs

• February 2025, Norcross, Georgia worksite closing

  AGCO planned to close a Norcross worksite for good, with all three of its employees affected and separations expected February 1 and March 8, 2025, its notice in Georgia's WARN record shows.

• October 2024, Hesston plant indefinite layoff

  AGCO announced an indefinite layoff affecting fewer than 70 people at its Hesston, Kansas plant, part of what it told KSN were steps to reduce costs.

• June 2024, restructuring with a salaried workforce target

  AGCO announced a restructuring, citing weakening demand in agriculture, and expected the first phase to cut its salaried workforce by up to about 6% net from the end of 2023, its June 2024 8-K said.

• November 2014, Jackson, Minnesota campus cuts

  AGCO Jackson Operations cut 43 employees campus-wide after earlier shift changes and a smaller temporary workforce, a Farm Equipment report said, and operations director Eric Fisher put that at under 4% of 1,100 workers.

• September 2014, Hesston and Beloit, Kansas plant layoffs

  AGCO laid off 72 at Hesston that week, a second phase after 24 jobs went in August, and set its Beloit plant to lose 39 hourly jobs, a company statement carried by Kansas Public Radio said.

• July 2009, Hesston hourly layoffs

  AGCO informed 154 hourly Hesston employees of a layoff and announced shorter work weeks, according to a company release Farm Equipment reported, after laying off 60 full-time production workers in early June.

• March 2003, DeKalb, Illinois track tractor plant closing

  AGCO announced it would close its Challenger track tractor plant in DeKalb and move production to Jackson, Minnesota, and its 2003 10-K ties severance costs to 134 employees terminated after DeKalb's production stopped in May.

What to do if you're laid off from AGCO

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. AGCO's biggest hubs: Kansas, Georgia, Illinois. 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 AGCO's hub states run: Kansas, Georgia, Illinois, 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.