After failing to get 65 workers to agree to voluntarily resign, Jefferson Lab is now looking to lay off at least 46 in January.
Jens Dilling, director of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, told staff the step is hard, but necessary for the lab's future.
“It doesn’t mean that we don’t respect every single one of the people that are here,” Dilling said during his announcement of the layoffs at a Friday all-staff meeting.
Employees will find out if they are included in the layoffs on Jan. 23, 2026 and will depart the lab the same day. Those selected will get two weeks of pay before their final termination date on Feb. 6. In addition, they will get severance pay based on their length of service up to a maximum of $50,000 and job search help from a firm contracted by Jefferson Lab.
The organization announced this summer that it was looking to cut its workforce by 7%. Dilling said the restructuring plan would optimize the Department of Energy-contracted facility’s staff for new research opportunities and elevate its ongoing nuclear physics work.
“What people have been doing a while ago is, perhaps, not what we need to be doing now or what we are paid to do now based on the contract that we have with (the Department of Energy),” he said.
The layoffs were a decision made independent of federal budget cuts and employee reductions, according to Dilling.
President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget includes an 8% cut to nuclear physics research and zeroes out federal funding for the future High Performance Data Facility at the lab, part of a pivot into data science and artificial intelligence research. Congress is still finalizing budget appropriations, and Dilling said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes hundreds of millions of dollars of possible funding for the work.
Jefferson Lab staff were told in August about the possibility of layoffs if the organization didn’t reach its goal of 65 resignations. Just 19 were approved. The final final day for people who voluntarily resigned is Wednesday, Oct. 15, barring any case-by-case exceptions.
Division leaders will evaluate nearly all employees leading up to the January layoffs to inform the selection process. Staff will be rated on their length of service and performance reviews, with more weight placed on their unique skillsets and how critical their position is to the facility’s core mission. Decisions will be reviewed by management and shared with the Department of Energy.
The process is complicated by the ongoing federal government shutdown; if it continues long enough, it may mean the layoff timeline will change.
Jefferson Lab, unlike many federal facilities, is continuing to operate using reserve funds from the prior fiscal year, but it only has enough money to continue as-is until Oct. 28. After that, 900 employees will be furloughed until Congress agrees on a budget or continuing resolution.
Leadership is trying to stretch its money as far as possible to maintain limited staffing to keep the lab safe and its particle accelerator cold.
“If you need to warm up and close everything down, it gets really, really complicated and really, really expensive,” Dilling said.
The lab is asking all staff with more than 80 hours of accrued vacation leave to take two days off by next Monday, Oct. 20. That, alongside the furlough, will preserve enough money for 45 employees to stay on through Nov. 21. The 45 would include all employees with H-1B visas.
Another option would be to furlough employees on Oct. 25, which would stretch the lab’s money until Dec. 5 with limited staffing. A day earlier would carry them until Dec. 19.
“Hopefully the government comes back,” Dilling said. “Hope is not a plan. We have to be prepared.”
It is questionable if furloughed federal employees will get back pay. When asked if that was a possibility for Jefferson Lab employees, Dilling said no.
“We have a contract with the government; they pay for the time we write down,” he said. “For (2026), there is no appropriated funds, so we have no contract with the government, hence we cannot write down time.”
Lab leaders are still looking into options for employee benefits if the shutdown reaches record lengths. Benefits are paid until the end of November, but if no paychecks are processed, there are no mechanisms in place to withhold employee contributions for health insurance. The lab will also need to find the money for its share of the contribution.
“We’re looking to figure out whether we can tap into retirement plans and take money out,” Dilling said. “There are tax implications; it gets really complicated, really fast.”
