California life sciences jobs declined 1.8% last year, according to the new California Life Sciences sector report. While National Institutes of Health funding and venture capital investment rose, their growth slowed from the previous year.
While life sciences employment in California had been growing year over year, that came to an end in 2025. There were 336,505 life sciences jobs statewide last year, representing a 1.8% decline from 2024, according to the new California Life Sciences (CLS) sector report.
“Employment declined modestly in 2025, a reminder that the state’s position at the top of the national rankings requires continued investment to maintain,” the 2026 report noted.
Life sciences jobs in California had grown year over year from 2022 to 2024, according to CLS data, although growth had slowed in 2024. When the 2025 sector report published, CLS President and CEO Mike Guerra told BioSpace that the continued growth was somewhat surprising given challenges including layoffs and company closures.
The largest employment subsector in California last year, according to the 2026 report, was biopharma (research and development and manufacturing), with 115,033 jobs. Medical devices and equipment claimed the second spot, with 77,826.
From a location perspective, the Bay Area accounted for one-third of the state’s life sciences employment in 2025 despite making up just 19% of California’s private-sector workforce. It had over 107,000 industry jobs across 3,126 business establishments.
There were 15,660 life sciences establishments total in California last year, according to the report. Most were small businesses, as 66.9% had one to nine employees, and 26.6% had 10 to 99. Just 6.5% had 100 or more.
NIH, VC funding rise in 2025 but fall short of previous increases
The 2026 sector report also outlined National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and venture capital (VC) investment, noting that both rose in 2025 and led the nation. However, NIH funding went up just 0.9%, from $5.2 billion in 2024 to about $5.25 billion last year. It had significantly larger year-over-year increases in 2022 (+4.2%), 2023 (+2%) and 2024 (+2%). The top-funded organizations in 2025 were UC San Francisco, Stanford University, UC San Diego, UCLA and University of Southern California.
VC investment in California fared better. It reached $21 billion in 2025, a 6.1% increase from 2024’s $19.8 billion. However, that year-over-year improvement fell significantly short of 2024’s 31.1% jump. Still, 2025 marked two straight years of increased VC investment, as there had been a 5.6% decrease in 2023. As to where the 2025 investment went, the report noted that 54.2% of it flowed into pharmaceuticals and biotech. The next-largest chunks went to healthcare IT (22.5%) and medical devices and supplies (18.1%).
