LANL sheds 557 employees

Los Alamos National Laboratory announced that 557 employees will be leaving the lab in early April under a voluntary separation program. In February, LANL had announced a targeted reduction of between 400 and 800 people from its regular, permanent 7600-member workforce. The lab said the job cuts were needed because of a 16% reduction in the lab’s budget from its 2011 level.

Employees who volunteered to quit will receive severance packages of up to 39 weeks of pay based on their years of service. They can also participate in the lab’s health insurance plan for a limited time. Although it is unlikely that further cuts will be made to the full-time lab workforce, the contractor and term employee workforce may need to be pared before the end of the current fiscal year.

According to the lab, 36% of those volunteering to leave are from the scientific, technology, and engineering directorate; 25% from operations and business services; 16% from the nuclear weapons directorate; and 15% from the global security directorate. Of the total number of employees leaving, 258 are from professional fields, such as finance, information technology, and records management; 152 are from research and development fields; 74 are managers; 59 are technicians; and 14 are support employees.