Latest / BioSpace / Bonus: Q3 2026 Job Market Update
Transcript
- Angela Gabriel: How are you? Chantal Dresner: Good, good. It is our first video podcast. so please forgive us, but we're looking forward to being on the show and you getting to see our faces. so Angela Gabriel: Yeah, a little bit different for us here. Chantal Dresner: mm-hmm, I know we don't get to hide. So Angela Gabriel: No. Chantal Dresner: well I'm Chantelle Jessner of Biospace. today in this special episode, we're gonna be discussing the biotech and pharma job market and what happened over Q3. So I'm here with Angela Gabriel, who covers the job market and layoffs for biospace, and who also produces our Career Insider weekly newsletter, which is essential reading for people working in the biotech and pharma industries. So we're gonna look at job activity on biospace as well as what happened in terms of layoffs from June to September, data from the BLS, some market indicators that may help us understand what's happening now and what's going to be happening next in biopharma. Angela, you wanna kind of kick us off and tell us what you were seeing? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, thanks, Chantal. So once again, thankfully, we did see encouraging signs for job seekers. And that's become what I would say is a welcome trend so far in 2026. The two key year-over-year improvements that we were looking at were increased job postings live on the Biospace website, and then also decreased layoffs. And I know layoffs have been a really hot topic for people for a few years now, so that's always good to know. So for job postings live specifically, there are a few interesting data points that we saw in the third quarter. One was that there was a 31% year-over-year increase in jobs live on biospace. We also saw that there were at least 4,400 biotech positions live each month of the third quarter. And that's the first time that that's happened in a quarter dating back to Q3 of 2024. And then for the fourth quarter in a row, there were at least 3,000 average jobs live on the website. The actual number was 3,917, and that was the highest quarterly figure since Q4 of 2024. There were at least 1,000 jobs live in California during every month of Q3. First time that's happened in a quarter since Q2 2025. And then in Massachusetts, the other Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: big biopharma place for people looking for jobs, for the second quarter in a row, there are at least a thousand positions live each month. So We were seeing a lot of things happening that we just hadn't seen happen in a while. Now, all of that said, we did actually see a little bit of a dip for our quarter over quarter numbers. We had job postings live on Biospace down by two percent, but we had some website maintenance happening in September. So our data for that month was actually available just from the first through the 25th, which is most of the month. But still, if we'd had full data for all of September, it's possible we might have seen jobs live actually rise from Q2 to Q3. Chantal Dresner: Right. So I mean honestly, like hearing all of that, it sounds like a lot of positive indications. it seems like things are certainly starting to improve. And I will express some cautious optimism that things will sort of continue to improve throughout the rest of the year and into 2027. so you also cover biopharma layoffs or reductions in force. So what happened in Q3? how did that compare to last year? And how did that even compare to earlier this year? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, so similar to what we were seeing with our job postings live, we also saw year over year improvement in layoffs. So during the third quarter, there were twenty-seven biopharmas that let go or projected they're going to let go of two thousand five hundred and sixty-eight employees. And then if you compare Chantal Dresner: Mm. Angela Gabriel: that to the second quarter, we had of I'm sorry, to Q3 of 2025. We had 62 Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: companies that plan to cut 24,891 people. So if you look at that year over year, that's a 56% decrease in the number of biopharmas were making or planning those cuts, and a 90% Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: drop in the actual number of people who are being affected by those cuts. And then the other Chantal Dresner: So that's like a pretty significant improvement for like the number of people affected overall, right? Angela Gabriel: Number of people for sure, something that we've been seeing pretty consistently this year. And the number of companies also, we've seen a a dramatic decrease in the number of companies that are trimming their workforces. And then that 2,568 people that we were looking at in Q three who are being affected by the layoffs, that was actually the lowest quarterly figure since Q four of twenty twenty five. That number was four thousand three. So you compare that twenty-five sixty-eight. Yeah. Yeah. It it's Chantal Dresner: Even that's still quite a big jump. Yeah. Hmm. Angela Gabriel: good to see that. Like I said, also good to see that the number of companies making these decisions is going down quite a bit year over year. But you know, for those people who are looking at those layoffs and saying, Yeah, still we have a lot of people entering the job market, how many people are actually being immediately dumped into that job market because of those Q3 layoffs? The good news is there are still several hundred people who are at their jobs for at least a little while longer. So we don't always know the effective dates of the cuts, but looking at the dates that we do know. 878 people, their end dates aren't until either sometime this quarter or even beyond that, the next year, or in some cases it's a multi-year thing. So then if we look at the layoff size, I know a lot of people like to know what was the biggest layoff that we saw. It was actually at GSK. So that company, they are consolidating their vaccine manufacturing operations to one site in Canada, and because of that, they are going to close a facility in Germany. That's going to leave about 650 employees jobless, unfortunately. And then in continued news on GSK, Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: we just found out this month that the company is going to eliminate over 1200 roles in Belgium. And this is all part of their three-year plan where they're reallocating capital and their resources to support their late stage pipeline and their RD efforts. Chantal Dresner: Right. okay, well, I think overall layoffs and how many people it's impacting, number of companies, that's all an improvement. We're also seeing improvement in terms of like investor sentiment, and then that's changing and the most recent notes that we're getting from analysts, and there is some sense of anticipation that there will be the capital injection into the market. Can you maybe talk us through some recent activity that's indicating positivity there? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, I think in our last job market report and the last podcast for that report, we talked about merger and acquisition activity being up noticeably for the first half of the year. This time, Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: wanted to take a look at IPOs because we actually had nine biotechs in the US that had IPOs in the third quarter, and there were five just in August alone. And that's pretty significant because last year there were eight for the entire year. So eight for the entire Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: year versus nine in the third quarter, which is a pretty big Big improvement. And Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: then the other thing that we were seeing is we were seeing biotechs embracing reverse mergers during the third quarter. So there were 19 that were either completed in the third quarter or planned. And that was up quite a bit, 1,800% from the one and only reverse merger that was reported in Q two. Chantal Dresner: Interesting. Angela Gabriel: Yeah. So there actually had not been more than one of these types of mergers in a quarter since Q two of twenty twenty five. And even then, there were two total. Chantal Dresner: so I kind of want to pivot now. We we published our employee engagement report at the end of September. so we had, you know, over 8,000 something responses from our best places to work survey. And included in that survey, we had over 2,500, 2,300, sorry, open-ended comments of like how people were feeling about their their place of work and we basically analyzed a lot of that sentiment to publish this report. but just in general. How is the biopharma workforce feeling about the market right now? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, we've you know, we've done a few polls over the course of the last year, even gauging when people think the market might turn around and some people think it's gonna happen sooner than others. We did have a poll most recently in August out on LinkedIn where we were specifically targeting people who've been out of work for at least half a year, also known as the long term unemployed. And that poll showed that almost one in four respondents had actually stopped looking for a biopharma job in twenty twenty six, which definitely reflects there is some discouragement. among biopharma professionals about what's going on in the job market right now. And then we've also seen in some previous polling that there is a decent number of people who are thinking about leaving biopharma completely. And there can be different Chantal Dresner: Mm. Angela Gabriel: reasons for that. For some people it's they're they're in a location where it's just tough to find work. Some people maybe they have to find employment in another state just because of a spouse. So different reasons why they might be having difficulty, the job market itself being really challenging, but Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: For the people who are thinking maybe it's time to leave biopharma, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has had some kind of mixed news for the third quarter. For September, BLS reported adding 2,000, or I'm sorry, 29,000 jobs in the US, which on Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: the surface sounds good. but there were economists surveyed by Dow Jones. They thought that the number was going to be more like 84,000. So that's a little different. And then Chantal Dresner: Pretty big difference, yeah. Angela Gabriel: Yeah, and then BLS typically because some data just comes in after the initial reporting is done, BLS will revise Chantal Dresner: Mm. Angela Gabriel: numbers for previous months. And unfortunately, they did that for both July and August, and they revised the job numbers down. So actually, the employment that was happening in the US for July and August, when you add that together, it was 60,000 lower than what they were previously reporting. Chantal Dresner: Right. Angela Gabriel: So ADP actually had more encouraging numbers. They said that the US economy added private sector jobs in every single month of Q three. So they said forty four thousand more jobs in July, thirty eight thousand in August, and then ninety thousand in September. So some positive momentum from what they're looking at just in the private sector alone. Chantal Dresner: Hm, okay. Well, hopefully, you know, the industry is resilient and things continue to pick up, but we'll see. you know, do you have any thoughts or advice for people who are looking for work right now in biotech and pharma? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, I mean some some thoughts. Some of this made it into our job market report and then some of it didn't. So it's kind of interesting to take a look at some of the news that we covered during the quarter. So in Massachusetts, for example, we found out last month that there's going to be thirty-eight life sciences companies that are expected to create one thousand six hundred forty-four combined jobs this year, thanks to some tax incentive awards in the state. And some of the companies that are going to be adding positions if they accept the award and move forward as expected. That includes Bristol Meyer Squid, 125 jobs in Devons. Also Vertex Pharmaceuticals with 121 in Boston. The most jobs that would be added under this program would be from a medical device company called Insulate, and they're supposed to add 250 Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: positions in Acton. We also saw in August BLS released some data predicting that. US data science jobs are going to grow 35% from 2025 to 2035, and that totals up to about 95,400 new jobs. So we had an article about that, and we talked Chantal Dresner: Yeah. Angela Gabriel: to Darren Nelson. He's the founder and CEO of Recruits Lab, and he told us that data science roles that are most in demand right now, those are going to be computational biologists for genomic data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning discovery scientists for predictive drug modeling. And then also translational data science for data scientists for clinical trial and real-world evidence analysis. So if you go to Chantal Dresner: Okay. Angela Gabriel: our website, we have a job section on the website. If you search for data scientists, you're gonna find a few hundred jobs open and listed on our site right Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: now. And then we also took a look at contract development and manufacturing organizations. So if Anybody listening to this podcast is interested in working out a C DMO, we talked with Dave Bowers, he's the managing director and global head of EPM Scientific. He told us that the demand for outsourced pharma manufacturing has actually increased faster than the specialist talent pool. And specifically, he said operational leaders are really highly in demand. Yeah. Chantal Dresner: Right. Well, that makes sense given what's happening with all of the reshoring efforts right now. Angela Gabriel: Yes, and speaking of that, we also had a story Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: about there being some concern that pharma are looking to reshore manufacturing are facing a very limited talent pool. So there's need for specialist talent within that area. So we talked with Sheena Dempsey, Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: she's a CEO of CAI, and she said that the manufacturing functions most in demand right now are process engineers, chemical engineers, and then project managers. Chantal Dresner: Hm, okay. And so what do you think's gonna happen for the rest of the year? There's a few months left already, like, you know, well into Q four. What do you think's gonna happen? Angela Gabriel: Yeah, I mean we have seen in previous years and kind of what we've been seeing this year, you know, we keep seeing cautious optimism. we are seeing increased activity among employers on our website with job postings. Based on all Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: of that, I would say we're probably going to see that companies they're going to be hiring this quarter, they are going to be selective though. And typically job seekers are going to see fewer opportunities posted come December just because that's when the holidays are happening and people are out of town. So things Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: do tend to slow down a little bit in terms of posting activity. That doesn't mean Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: hiring isn't happening necessarily, but posting might not be happening as often as earlier in the quarter. Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: So, because of that, we you know, we've had experts tell us recently that job seekers you should be applying for jobs sooner than later. They recommended, of course, be reachable throughout the quarter. So it's not That you can't take time away with friends and family or travel, but just make sure that you're reachable in case somebody does contact you wanting to schedule an interview or make you an offer. Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: And then also it's important to know what trade-offs you're going to make for your next position. So, Danielle Deal, she's a director of clinical recruiting at Clint Lab Solutions Group. She recommended that job seekers be flexible when considering their options. And one example she gave is maybe you're somebody who you never traveled for your job before. You might want to think Chantal Dresner: Mm-hmm. Angela Gabriel: about perhaps traveling say ten percent, fifteen percent of the time in a position that that interests you. She had a really great quote. She she said the people who are being flexible in this market, they're those who are landing the next or I'm sorry. She said the people who are being flexible in this market are those who are landing the position. Chantal Dresner: Right. Okay, well, sound advice. and good luck to everyone out there. I mean, I think this is very reflective of what we're hearing from employers as well. I was just at the Leap HR conference, that is for biopharma specifically in Boston at the beginning of October. And very much what we're hearing on the employer side as well. They're still hiring, they're still looking to the grow their teams, but there is a certain amount of constraint that's still being applied in who, what, and how they're choosing to hire. there's still significant impact of AI, not just, you know, on the roles themselves, but how the companies are approaching growth, how companies are approaching building their teams in general. so yeah, very interesting to see what's happening next, but I do think that there's a lot of positive indications there that you just referenced. And, you know, I think everyone's hoping for the best and hoping things are going to continue to pick up. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Angela. We will see you again next quarter. And if you haven't already subscribed to Create Insider, make sure that you do. You get those job market updates for free when you subscribe. They hit your inbox and lots of valuable information in there. Cool. Thanks so much. Bye. Angela Gabriel: Yep, thank you. All right. Bye.