The new year for Deere & Co. started with the announcement of another round of layoffs, this time impacting approximately 75 production employees who will be placed on indefinite layoff effective Feb. 7 at its plant in Ottumwa, Iowa. Multiple media outlets across Iowa reported that an announcement on the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, site came on Jan. 6 after the company temporarily shut down production in Ottumwa beginning in December reported by Farm Equipment at the time, as a result of a reduction in customer demand.
According to a DesMoines Register news update from Kevin Baskins, the latest cut is Deere’s 15th announced layoff over the past year. Based in Moline, Ill.,, Deere & Co. operates plants across Iowa, where the layoffs have affected 1,866 workers at facilities in Waterloo, Davenport, Dubuque, Ankeny, Johnson, Urbandale and Ottumwa. The article also noted that in a statement issued Jan. 6, Deere again referred to “challenging market conditions” which resulted in reduced demand for its equipment.
As reported in Farm Equipment’s coverage of Deere’s most recent earnings report, the company reported that those ongoing challenging market conditions resulted in a marked reduction of demand for equipment and projected earnings to be down $5 billion from 2023. The company says workforce adjustments will continue to be made as needed pending future equipment demand.
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