John Deere — the largest agricultural machinery company in the world — is shrinking.
On January 3, 2025, John Deere will lay off nearly 300 employees from their facilities in Iowa. The company claims that there has been a decreased demand for farm equipment lately.
There are three different facilities that will see workers impacted: Two facilities in Illinois, and one in Iowa.
John Deere, as a large company with more than 100 employees, is required by law to report upcoming mass layoffs, just not names of who’s on the list.
We do know that it will be 200 employees at John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, Ill., 80 production workers at John Deere Davenport Works in Davenport, Iowa, and 7 employees at John Deere Seeding and Cylinder operations in Moline, Ill.
Deere notes that the average price of corn being harvested has dropped by 37 percent from 2022, with soybean prices plummeting 24 percent and wheat prices falling 35 percent.
It’s a real issue in America that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. A downturn in sales ultimately affects hard-working Americana more than the company they work for.
As some grandfathers would say, s–t rolls downhill, so the ultimate weight gets levied on the employees who are just trying to feed their families.
John Deere has already had some mass layoffs in the recent past, amassing over 2,600 people across multiple states and factories.
Now that number will grow larger in the new year.