Most employers are expecting to hire this year, according to BioSpace data and Recruitment Manager Greg Clouse, who noted that companies are looking to do more than just replace people lost to turnover.
Although January brought continued layoffs and a year-over-year decrease in job postings live on BioSpace, that doesn’t tell the whole story about biopharma hiring at the start of 2025. There’s much more optimism about the job market now than there was this time last year, according to Greg Clouse, BioSpace recruitment manager.
Clouse noted that previously, companies expressed hopeful optimism about the market but didn’t necessarily act on it with firm hiring plans. That’s changed, he said, with employers talking about positions they need to hire and adding to teams, not just replacing people lost to turnover.
“Most of the companies I talked to are expecting to do some hiring this year,” Clouse said. “They’re not going to do a ton of hiring like they did two or three years ago when they were scrambling to get people, but they are going to do some hiring.”
That feedback is reflected in the BioSpace 2025 U.S. Life Sciences Employment Outlook report, which showed that 59% of organizations surveyed late last year were actively recruiting.
Competition Increases for Available Roles
Regarding the opportunities available, there were 19% fewer job postings live on BioSpace in January 2025 than in January 2024. That decrease aligns with a dip in the overall labor market. The number of U.S. job openings was down 1.3 million in 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Feb. 4.
Still, there were 5% more job postings live on BioSpace last month than in December, signaling that employers are starting to ramp up hiring activity for 2025. Competition for open roles is also heating up. From December to January, applications spiked 64.6% while the job response rate—the percentage of people applying to job postings after viewing them—rose from 23.1% to 25.5%.
There are more candidates in the market now compared to last year, according to Clouse. He cited layoffs and the desire to get better positions as among the factors, noting that some biopharma professionals are underemployed. Clouse shared an example of a senior manager of a manufacturing function who recently became a supply chain manager.
“He’s still looking for that senior manager, associate director position in GMP,” Clouse said. “He doesn’t want to be in supply chain, but that’s what he found. So that’s what he took.”
Other biopharma professionals are still waiting for any job at all, according to the BioSpace employment outlook report. It found that 45% of unemployed survey respondents had been between jobs for at least six months and 20% for over a year, underscoring the difficulty of finding work.
Employment challenges are also occurring in the overall labor market. BLS reported Feb. 4 that the number of U.S. hires decreased by 325,000 in 2024.
Layoffs Continue, Although at a Slower Pace
Although job loss continues to be an issue so far in 2025, it’s at a slower pace compared to last year. About 1,300 biopharma employees were let go last month, which was about 200 fewer than in January 2024, based on BioSpace tallies. Those tallies exclude contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, tools and services businesses and medical device firms.
Although fewer employees were let go year over year, more companies made larger cuts. Nine biopharmas that laid off employees last month slashed their staffs by at least 50%, compared to four in January 2024. The 2025 tally includes two businesses that cut their entire workforce: Oxular and Velia. No Oxular employees are moving to Regeneron following Regeneron’s acquisition of the U.K.-based biotech, while everyone at Velia is out of a job because the San Diego–based biotech is shutting down.
Other companies that cut staff in January include Allakos, Galapagos and IGM Biosciences.
Coming Soon: Hiring Should Increase This Quarter
Looking ahead to the rest of the first quarter, Clouse expects hiring to pick up either this month or in March, as is typically the case at pharma and biotech companies. He noted that it should continue through around June or so, then slow.
“I don’t know that we’ll have a huge uptick anytime this year,” Clouse said of hiring in 2025, “but if we can just do better than we did, and keep a little bit of growth going, I think that’ll be good for everybody.”
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