Employer Resources
Insights to help you hire and manage your workforce
BioSpace’s 2026 U.S. Life Sciences Employment Outlook examines the state of the biopharma workforce amid ongoing funding pressure, elevated layoffs and cautious hiring sentiment, while highlighting early signals of stabilization and cautious optimism for the year ahead.
Labor Market Trends
Higher competition for fewer roles remains the status quo for biopharma professionals, based on BioSpace data. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that recent job growth is lower than previously believed.
The number of biopharma professionals let go has increased year over year for three straight months. In July, as many as 8,000 people lost or were projected to lose their jobs, due largely to news that Merck projects to cut roughly 6,000 employees as part of a multiyear process.
Employed biopharma professionals are highly likely to look for new jobs in the next 12 months, although not quite as likely as their unemployed counterparts, according to a BioSpace LinkedIn poll. Three recruitment experts discuss the findings and what’s driving job searches.
BioSpace has named 50 life sciences companies to its 2026 Best Places to Work list. AbbVie, Amneal Pharmaceuticals and BridgeBio executives share what makes their organizations special.
BioSpace’s third report on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in life sciences examines dramatic shifts in attitude around diversity initiatives.
BioSpace has created guidelines on how biopharma organizations, large and small, can effectively support employee resource groups (ERGs), encouraging both their creation and ongoing participation.
In the final instalment of our Diversity in Life Sciences series, BioSpace provides life sciences organizations with practical solutions and benchmarking data to strengthen their DEI initiatives.
How does age affect employees’ experiences in the workplace? This report examines the intersection of age along with gender and other demographics.
RECRUITING
BioSpace surveyed life sciences employers to understand attitudes and current trends on AI usage in recruiting. This report explores the benefits of using AI tools in recruitment and provides practical recommendations for HR and talent acquisition professionals to leverage AI effectively. Concurrently, this report highlights the challenges and risks of using these tools without critical thought and intention.
If people are your greatest asset, it is imperative that your organization maintains a positive employer brand presence and talent pipeline. This report covers how you can build a strong employer brand with prospective employees, current employees - and former employees.
As competition for life sciences talent peaks, BioSpace has undertaken research to determine what employers can do to ensure they don’t lose out on talent they actually want to hire and retain.
In challenging conditions, how can employers optimize the employee experience to retain their top talent and make the most of their current teams?
As the field grows rapidly, companies are luring people from other nuclear industries and tapping the expanding educational talent pipeline, but are constrained by a steep learning curve and the value of real-world experience.
In this episode presented by Slone Partners, Leslie Loveless, Co-CEO and Managing Partner discusses how hiring and the building of executive teams has responded to the current biotech environment.
WEBINARS
This discussion features DEIB leaders from California Life Sciences, MassBio, Eli Lilly and Takeda. We explore changing attitudes in the life sciences workforce, if organizations are adjusting either their DEIB or communication strategies, and how evolving philosophies around DEIB are impacting human resources and talent acquisition activities.