Deere & Co. announces more layoffs

Slow sales of agricultural machinery have led to yet another layoff at Deere & Co.

The world's largest manufacturer of farm equipment on Thursday notified about 160 employees who had been laid off for an inventory adjustment shutdown at the John Deere Seeding plant in Moline, Ill., that they have been placed on indefinite layoff.

Deere spokesman Ken Golden said in a statement that other employees who had been on inventory adjustment shutdown will return to work as planned in August.

'Deere continues to adjust the size of our manufacturing workforce at individual factories in response to market demand for products, attrition in the workforce, and for other business reasons,” Golden said.

'At some locations, Deere has brought employees back to work. This was the case in a recent recall of employees in Waterloo.”

When Deere reported its second quarter earnings in May, the company said it expected overall equipment sales would decline by 19 percent in fiscal year 2015, including a decrease of approximately 24 percent for agriculture and turf equipment sales.

On Jan. 23, Deere announced the indefinite layoff of about 900 employees at five locations in Iowa and Illinois that build agricultural equipment.

The January furlough announcement came after a Waterloo plant laid off 460 employees in October, primarily in two areas - tractor

cab assembly operations (about 240) and drivetrain operations (about 195).