Deere said the workforce adjustments reflect the economic forecast included in the company’s November 2014 earnings report as the company continues to align the size of its manufacturing workforce to market demand for products.
The changes will place approximately 910 employees on indefinite layoff from facilities in Iowa and Illinois. Deere said the approximate number of layoffs at each location include 565 total at three locations in Waterloo, IA; 300 at the Des Moines Works in Ankeny, IA; and 45 employees at Harvester Works in East Moline, IL.
In addition, approximately 500 employees at Deere’s Seeding and Cylinder facility in Moline will go on an extended inventory adjustment shutdown. That location typically has a seasonal inventory adjustment this time of year. For Seeding and Cylinder employees, the adjustment shutdown is expected to end in late summer.
The layoffs announced today are effective at different dates for each location. They begin in early February and most are effective in late March. Today’s announcement is in addition to workforce adjustments announced in August.
Meanwhile, Deere has added 220 new jobs at construction and forestry factories in Iowa. These two factories – Dubuque Works and Davenport Works – have each added 110 new jobs. Deere said nearly all of these positions have been filled by individuals who had been working for Deere at other locations but were laid off after the company announced workforce reductions at agricultural equipment factories in August.
I would not be surprised to see the jobs going to India under some of our new trade agreements – they have a population like china and no EPA rules – were spending hundreds of billions of dollars abroad in wars and economic aid to more than twenty countries while letting our own country go down the sewer.
Darn shame. These are good paying jobs that will be hard to replace.
This is a cyclical industry, it moves up and down according to the farm economy. It looks bad next year for farmers. It will come back.
Another cyclical industry here in north Iowa is Winnebago Industries. They have had their bad times but now they can’t fill employment vacancies. Anyone that want’s to work can get a job there. Why are all these people on the streets in Mason City unemployed? They even have a bus to take you up there and bring you home.
@John-I agree with you on this. I worked in Farm Equipment for a time and it does go up and down. There are a lot of factors in that as it is a world manufacturing business. Things like crop levels in South America or even Africa can affect it. And, as they are all in the construction machinery business as well, that affects them too. As to the unemployed people in town, they don’t work because they don’t have too. They all live off the rest of us.