While average job postings live on BioSpace have increased year over year for nearly every month of 2026, the number of employees affected by made or planned layoffs by the end of that same period nearly matched what was seen in 2025.
The biopharma job market showed some year-over-year improvement during the first four months of 2026, although there’s some nuance in the numbers, according to BioSpace data.
April marked the third straight month that average job postings live on the BioSpace website edged up year over year. While the 4% increase didn’t match the improvements in February (+5%) and March (+7%), and last month’s total was the second lowest of 2026, the continued increases still represent a positive trend.
Some of the competition for these open positions has come from unemployed biopharma professionals, as biotech and pharma layoffs have continued pushing people into the job market. While the number of companies making or planning cuts has dropped significantly year over year for the first four months of 2026, the number of affected employees is nearly the same, based on BioSpace tallies.* From January to April 2025, 95 biopharmas let go or planned to let go of 7,316 people. Through the same four months of this year, 40 companies laid off or expected to lay off 7,428 employees.
Most recently, in April, the number of biopharmas making or projecting cuts fell year over year from 21 to nine, a 57% decrease.
The number of affected employees in April also fell year over year, decreasing by 40%, from 1,390 to 835. There were year-over-year drops in January (-64%) and March (-34%) as well. However, the number of affected employees jumped 277% from February 2025 to February 2026, due largely to one company’s cuts. Viatris announced a multiyear restructuring that involves laying off up to 10% of its global workforce, which would be about 3,000 people based on the company’s headcount in a November SEC filing.
Cuts are already hitting workforces hard in May. Most notably, Takeda revealed in an earnings presentation that it will eliminate about 4,500 roles in fiscal year 2026. The next-largest cuts reported so far this month belong to BioNTech, which plans to close three manufacturing facilities in Germany and one in Singapore by the end of 2027, affecting roughly 1,860 jobs. Combined, those layoffs surpass the May 2025 layoff total of 4,731 employees, which included Teva Pharmaceuticals’ plans to let go of 2,893 staffers by 2027.
Top states for biopharma hiring
As to where the most hiring activity took place in April, based on job postings live on BioSpace, the top five states were Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, New York and Indiana. Massachusetts and New Jersey were the only states to top 1,000 jobs live, while only Massachusetts and New York saw month-over-month increases, which reached 9% and 4%, respectively. New Jersey had the biggest drop (-6%).
Regarding hiring plans for those states, Eli Lilly announced this month that it’s investing $4.5 billion into two manufacturing facilities in its home state of Indiana. The pharma did not specify how many positions the move would generate or when they would be available but referenced “creating high-quality jobs” in its announcement.
Positive IPO, M&A news
Given that funding affects biopharma companies’ ability to hire and retain employees, it’s noteworthy that there’s recently been positive news on deals.
Multiple biotechs had initial public offerings in April, most notably obesity startup Kailera Therapeutics, which raised a record $625 million, topping Moderna’s $600 million from 2018. In addition, the biotech industry recorded 19 exits valued at $13.3 million in Q1, according to PitchBook data. That was the highest exit value reported since the fourth quarter of 2021.
Bayer also made headlines recently, announcing this month that it’s purchasing Perfuse Therapeutics for $300 million upfront, the company’s first pharma acquisition since 2021.
*Layoff numbers exclude contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, tools and services businesses and medical device firms. To tally the cuts, BioSpace compiles data for known workforce reductions. The number of employees affected is identified or estimated primarily through information in company press releases, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, SEC filings and other media outlets’ reports or via confirmation from company officials.
Not all companies disclose downsizing, and some share only the percentage of staff affected. Some biopharmas provide total numbers retrospectively rather than disclosing individual workforce reductions as they happen.
