NASA employees in Houston spared from latest round of government layoffs
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- NASA employees at Johnson Space Center were spared from Tuesday night's latest round of government layoffs.
It's a surprise turn of events hours after the center's probationary employees had been bracing to be fired.
The probationary status includes workers in at least their first year of employment, including young workers starting their careers and more experienced workers who spent years at NASA contractors but recently moved to become federal employees.
According to ABC13's news partners at the Houston Chronicle, an internal NASA email says Johnson Space Center employees are exempt from the "impending layoff plan," though it's unclear why.
ABC News reports that NASA is set to lay off 10% of its workforce this week as part of the Trump administration's major federal job cuts.
RELATED: Trump administration begins mass layoffs across multiple federal agencies, sources say
NASA would be the latest federal agency to face layoffs as President Donald Trump works to shrink the federal workforce.
The reversal Tuesday night doesn't exclude potential future layoffs at the agency. NASA has also announced a broader reduction in force, which is expected to result in firings at some point.
According to 2023 figures, nearly 3,000 full-time-equivalent federal employees work at the Johnson Space Center, and NASA has just under 18,000 civil servants nationwide. The Planetary Society reported that more than 1,000 NASA employees nationwide could be on probation.
