John Deere laid off more than 300 salaried employees at its operations in the Quad Cities area last week. The move is part of significant layoffs across the company’s U.S. operations in 2024 that will primarily affect its agricultural and construction equipment divisions.
While the company has not yet confirmed exact numbers for these layoffs, WQAD, the ABC affiliate in Moline, Ill., reported that Deere had laid off 298 employees at its world headquarters in Moline and 21 employees at Harvester Works in Moline. Previously, the station said the company laid off about 170 workers at three facilities in Iowa. The company has not confirmed the numbers for any of these rounds of layoffs.
The layoffs are part of a string of moves the company confirmed earlier in the year that are expected to impact 1,500 employees at facilities that mainly produce harvesting, construction and forestry equipment. The company has not specifically mentioned impacts on turf equipment production.
Deere cited a projected 20-25 percent downturn in farm equipment sales, along with lower commodity prices and higher operating expenses affecting farmers’ purchasing decisions for these moves.
The company also said it continues to focus on technology integration and precision agriculture solutions, which could potentially benefit its turf and landscape equipment offerings in the long term.
