Laid-off JPL workers lead surge of job seekers
Around 400 attend City of Long Beach's `Space Beach' job fair on Friday
Around 400 job-seekers, at least half of whom were affected by a recent JPL laid off, attended a job fair at Long Beach Friday.
Space Beach Job Fair, hosted by the city of Long Beach, aimed to connect aerospace companies in the city with skilled folks, including the more than 500 employees recently displaced by layoffs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Activity at The WorkPlace, the venue for the job fair, surged shortly after the event's scheduled 9a.m. start time, as eager job seekers arrived with resumes in hand. Within an ho0ur, JetZero, a Long Beach aviation startup, made the first job offer of the day.
“The excitement in the room, both on the side of the employers and the prospective employees, is palpable,” said LongBeach Mayor Rex Richardson, who stopped by the venue in the morning to chat with attendees. “Here at Space Beach, the energy is real, and there are companies who can't hire fast enough.”
Earlier this month, JPL revealed plans to lay off around 530 employees, which includes 40 contractors, as part of a cost-saving initiative.
These layoffs constitute 8% of the Lab's total workforce.
JPL had been preparing itself for a $300 million budget cut from NASA, a 63% drop from the previous year, which primarily affects a program focused on bringing Martian samples to earth for analysis.
Even prior to this anticipated cut, JPL had been facing pressure to reduce expenses, resulting in a hiring freeze, a reduction in some Mars Sample Return mission contracts, budget cuts and the elimination of some on-site contractors, JPL Director Laurie Leshin said previously.
Laid off workers would receive their salaries for 60days, and eligible employees would also be provided with severance packages and transitional benefits, such as placement services, JPL said.
Yet, for 38-year-old Chijioke Umeh, who has a toddler at home and a wife expecting their second child, the timing of the laid off couldn't have been more unfortunate.
“It's a pretty nerve-wracking period for me, said Umeh, a former mechanical systems engineer at JPL, who's looking for “something that gives me a chance to pick up where I left off at JPL.”
For Sreya Kumpatla, a former systems engineer at JPL, who attended the job fair with her former colleague, Karlynn McCarthy, the lay off “was very sudden,” she said.
However, Kumpatla, who lives in Glendale, said she is excited about the prospects of working in Long Beach, where aerospace companies get to launch close to the ocean.
“It's so sweet of the community to come together and support everyone who was laid off,” Kumpatla said. “It means the world to us, that people are looking at us and recognizing the talent that we have.”
McCarthy, who's originally from Oregon but now lives in Long Beach, said she cherished her time in JPL, but she is also looking forward to her new chapter in life.
“I've lived in LongBeach for the past three years, and so I'm very thankful for the opportunities they're providing all of us, putting us together and helping lots of people get to join the space industry,” said McCarthy.
She hopes to stay within the realm of mechatronics engineering, McCarthy said, noting that there are a lot of companies looking for talents in this area.
At least 200 of the 400 registered job applicants were impacted by the JPL laid-offs, said Deputy Mayor of Economic Development Lucius Martin. However, JPL was not the sole pool of job seekers.
Lauren Ochoa, 23, who graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in June 2023 with an aerospace engineering degree, said what attracted her to the job fair is the “collaborative environment” of Space Beach.
“I think what appeals to me is, how much innovation is going on there and how it's like such a big group of people that are all heading towards the same goal,” Ochoa said.
In 2021, Long Beach earned the moniker “Space Beach” from city officials and local economists as it began to attract a growing array of aerospace companies to town.
Among them is Vast Space, which has a mission to develop artificial gravity stations. It's looking to double their workforce by the end of the year—from 300 to at least 600, said Jules Haehn, principal technical recruiter at the company.
“The space community comes together, always, it's so important for us to support each other, when things like this happen,” she said. “it's a really special group of people in the community, and it's a win-win.”