John Deere has begun calling back nearly 100 previously laid off employees to its Iowa manufacturing facilities, signaling a short-term recovery in specific equipment segments despite ongoing pressure in the agricultural machinery market.
The workforce recall follows renewed production demand at the company’s Davenport and Dubuque plants, with returning employees scheduled to resume work in mid-February. The move comes just days after Donald Trump publicly praised Deere during a visit to Iowa, highlighting the manufacturer’s planned investments in U.S. production capacity.
At the Davenport Works facility, approximately 75 employees are being recalled to support output across multiple construction and forestry product lines. These include articulated dump trucks, motor graders, skidders, wheeled feller bunchers, and both production and utility-class loaders. The plant had previously reduced its workforce by nearly 300 employees between August 2024 and early January 2026.
In Dubuque, 24 workers are returning to support production-class dozer assembly as well as fabrication, material handling, and general factory operations. The Dubuque plant had also seen multiple rounds of layoffs during 2024 as demand weakened across both agricultural and industrial equipment markets.
What is driving the John Deere workforce recall in Iowa
From a market perspective, the recall reflects a divergence between agriculture and non-ag equipment demand. While row-crop machinery demand remains constrained by lower farm incomes, construction and forestry equipment orders have shown more resilience, supported by infrastructure spending, energy projects, and steady global demand for earthmoving and logging machinery.
Deere’s management has indicated that the recalls are directly tied to higher near-term production requirements rather than a broad-based recovery. This suggests a tactical workforce adjustment aimed at meeting confirmed orders, not a reversal of the wider manufacturing slowdown that has impacted the Midwest since mid-2023.
Another contributing factor is production localization. Deere has faced significant cost pressure from tariffs, reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in additional expenses over the past year. Bringing experienced workers back online allows the company to maximize efficiency at existing U.S. plants rather than shifting incremental volume elsewhere.
What this move means for Deere and the wider machinery market
For Deere, the recalls help stabilize operations in two strategically important facilities while preserving skilled labor ahead of potential demand volatility later in 2026. For the regional manufacturing economy, the move offers limited but meaningful relief following substantial job losses across Iowa’s industrial sector.
However, the scale of the recall remains modest compared with the more than 2,000 Deere jobs lost across Iowa and Illinois since 2024. The action should be viewed as a selective rebound in construction and forestry segments, not a full-cycle recovery for agricultural equipment manufacturing.
About John Deere manufacturing operations
Founded in 1837, John Deere operates more than 60 factories and offices across the United States, employing over 30,000 people nationally. The company maintains a dense manufacturing footprint in Iowa and the Quad Cities region, producing agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment for global markets. Its U.S. plants remain central to Deere’s strategy for large-scale equipment production, component manufacturing, and final assembly.
