JPL to Trim 1,000 Jobs Over 5 Years to Cope With Budget Squeeze

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose engineers have helped humankind walk on the moon and explore the far reaches of Uranus, is preparing to cut about 1,000 of its 7,500 work force over the next five years.

JPL Director Edward Stone blamed the reductions on “the realities of the federal budget,” as well as a decline in aerospace work brought on by the region’s ailing defense contractors.

JPL is the largest employer in the San Gabriel Valley. The job cuts, which are expected to begin soon, will be the lab’s first reduction in employment since the 1982 recession.

In addition, JPL will close two of its satellite facilities, the smaller Foothill and Montrose offices. Both facilities are leased and are not a part of the laboratory’s main campus near the Rose Bowl.

Laboratory officials said that normal staff turnover will account for much of the 13% work force reduction, but there will also be some “unavoidable” layoffs to balance the employees with the available jobs.

“As a federally funded laboratory and a national resource of considerable competence, we have a responsibility to mobilize our staff in such a way that we can accommodate a high volume of work with a relatively lean staff size,” Stone said in a prepared statement.

According to Stone, JPL is currently employing more people than is authorized in the current budget and must make immediate cuts. In future years, the lab expects to reduce its work force even further because of an expected decline in federal support.

Stone said some work that JPL would have handled in the past will be shifted to aerospace contractors. The purpose of that would be to prevent “brain drain” from those firms as defense contractors cope with shrinking Pentagon budgets and fewer projects.