The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA’s renowned research and development center, will lay off hundreds of employees this week as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at “realigning” the institution for future success, JPL Director Dave Gallagher announced Monday.

“In order to best position JPL going forward, we are taking steps to restructure and establish an appropriate size to ensure future success. As part of this effort, JPL is undergoing a realignment of its workforce, including a reduction in staff,” Gallagher said in a message to employees.

According to the statement, JPL staff will be informed of their employment status on Tuesday. The lab’s leadership had reportedly been transparent about the impending changes, citing “challenges and hard choices” in recent months. Gallagher emphasized that the layoffs are unrelated to the current government shutdown.

The move follows NASA’s broader workforce reduction plans announced earlier this year, after US President Donald Trump ordered all federal departments and agencies to downsize under his One Big Beautiful Bill initiative.

Workforce reductions already begun

Last Friday, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought confirmed that the federal workforce reductions had already begun amid the ongoing government shutdown.

The US government entered a shutdown on October 1 after Congress failed to approve a new fiscal budget, halting operations across multiple federally funded agencies. Trump previously suggested that the shutdown could be used to implement staff and salary cuts, blaming Democrats for the budget deadlock and using the impasse to target programs opposed by Republicans.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, around 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed each day during the shutdown, costing the government an estimated $400 million per day.

Chaos as Trump cuts jobs

Trump on Friday blamed Democrats for his decision to lay off thousands of federal employees, as his administration began implementing sweeping job cuts across multiple government agencies amid the ongoing shutdown.

Layoffs were reported at the Treasury Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of Education, Commerce, and the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division, according to agency spokespeople. The full scale of the cuts remains unclear.

The move adds to an already significant downsizing effort launched earlier this year, with roughly 300,000 federal civilian workers slated to leave their jobs in 2025.

“They started this thing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, describing the job cuts as “Democrat-oriented.”

More than 4,200 federal employees laid off

Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress but still need Democratic support in the Senate to pass any government funding bill. Democrats have refused to back a deal without an extension of health-insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, warning that health costs would soar for the 24 million Americans covered under the program.

The president, in his 10th day of the standoff with congressional Democrats, has repeatedly threatened to fire federal workers and redirect resources from agencies and states he associates with Democratic leadership. His administration has already frozen at least $28 billion in infrastructure funds earmarked for New York, California, and Illinois, all Democratic strongholds.

According to a Justice Department filing, more than 4,200 federal employees have received layoff notices at seven agencies, including over 1,400 at the Treasury Department and at least 1,100 at Health and Human Services.

The layoffs were detailed as follows: