Laid off from JPL.

What JPL layoffs have meant for employees

The February 2024 cuts, made to absorb the much lower Mars Sample Return budget NASA had set, reached technical and support staff across the lab's organizations, Leshin wrote in her February 2024 memo, and her November 2024 memo said the next round touched essentially all areas of the lab, whether a job was paid from a project or from overhead. The lab had grown from roughly 5,000 people in the early 2010s to roughly 6,500 for flagship missions such as Europa Clipper and Mars Sample Return, the Los Angeles Times reported, and with Clipper and Psyche in space and the sample mission shelved, it couldn't find roles for some of those projects' workers. If your role depends on a particular mission, that mission's funding and staffing plan may be worth asking about.

The November 2024 round came with a forecast. Leshin wrote that she believed it was the last cross-lab workforce action JPL would need for the foreseeable future, leaving a stable, supportable staffing level. She resigned, and her successor, Dave Gallagher, appointed director on June 2, 2025, announced the October cut, according to SpacePolicyOnline, which notes that Caltech, not NASA, makes JPL's personnel decisions, largely on the funding it expects from NASA. The White House's fiscal 2026 request had proposed ending Mars Sample Return within a 47 percent cut to NASA science, the same report says, and Congress instead funded the science directorate at $7.25 billion, Pasadena Now reported, about 1% below the year before. If you're planning around a job at the lab, those budget numbers are worth weighing above any assurance that a round was the last.

In both 2024 rounds, word came by email to people working from home. Leshin's February memo sent most staff home on February 7, said each person invited to a virtual workforce update meeting would get an email afterward saying whether they were affected, and urged anyone affected to forward it to a personal account at once, because NASA requires JPL system access to be shut off very shortly after notification. It also asked everyone to update their personal email and phone number in Workday. In November the emails went out by organization over several hours, with no organization-level meetings first. Through both years, staff who asked at town halls when layoffs were coming and who would go got few answers, the Times reported. For anyone still at JPL, those contact details are worth keeping current, since in February 2024 access to JPL systems was set to end very shortly after each notice. If the lab let you go, the state's rules for a jobless claim are collected at California unemployment benefits.

If a JPL separation package is in front of you, the plan's eligibility rules matter as much as its formula. Caltech's posted severance plan, adopted in 2023, leaves out contractors, temporary-agency workers, consultants and anyone whose position is even partly grant-funded, and it requires a completed 180-day introductory period. Someone laid off who accepts a Caltech job, or is merely offered a comparable one at the same or higher grade and pay as Caltech judges it, before the layoff date loses plan severance, so an internal offer is worth weighing with that in mind. For those who qualify, become eligible for COBRA or Cal-COBRA and elect it in time, Caltech pays a portion of health premiums for one month per year of uninterrupted service, up to six, or until they become eligible for another employer's coverage. Anyone who believes they're owed a plan payment can file a written claim within six months of learning the amount, or of learning there won't be one, and can appeal a denial in writing within 60 days. The plan also lets Caltech amend or terminate it, even retroactively, without advance notice, so it's worth confirming which version applies to you.

A sourced history of JPL layoffs

• October 2025, JPL cuts about 550 in a reorganization

  Part of a reorganization begun in July, not the government shutdown, the cut came with status notices due October 14, Director Dave Gallagher's October 13 message said. A JPL spokesperson put it at 11 percent of the workforce, per SpacePolicyOnline, and a 543-job notice dated that day sits in our WARN tracker.

• November 2024, JPL lays off about 325 staff

  To fit the lab's fiscal 2025 budget allocation, JPL set the layoff, about 5% of the workforce, for November 13, Director Laurie Leshin's November 12 memo said. Caltech's notice, in California's 2024-25 report, counted 328 jobs, effective January 12, 2025.

• February 2024, JPL cuts about 530 staff and 40 contractors

  With no fiscal 2024 appropriation and a far smaller Mars Sample Return budget from NASA to plan around, JPL cut about 8% of its workforce, Leshin's February 6 memo said. California's 2023-24 report shows Caltech's notice for 521 jobs, effective April 7.

• January 2024, JPL lets about 100 contractors go

  The lab let go of 100 on-site contractors, by the Los Angeles Times account, a month before its 2024 staff layoffs began.

What to do if you're laid off from JPL

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