by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register
The John Deere plant in Waterloo is laying off 192 workers effective June 22.
The company posted the notice on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, website.
The latest announcement follows layoffs of 308 in Waterloo announced in late March as well as layoffs of 150 workers from Deere’s Ankeny facility the same month.
In a statement to KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Deere said managers met with employees to inform them of the layoffs.
“Each John Deere factory balances the size of its production workforce with the needs of the individual factory to optimize the workforce at each facility,” it said.
It said Deere employs 5,200 people in Waterloo, with about 3,300 of them working in production and maintenance.
Plunge in farm income leads to inventory backup
Net sales for Deere’s production and precision agriculture segment dropped 16% to $6.6 billion during the second quarter of 2024, compared to $7.8 billion during the same period last year, primarily due to lower shipment volumes. Large agriculture equipment sales in the U.S. and Canada are expected to be down 15% for the year.
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