More than half of biotech and pharma job seekers have been looking for their next opportunity for six months or longer, and more than a quarter have searched for over a year, according to a BioSpace LinkedIn poll. Job seekers share their frustrations.
Biopharma professionals hoping to get hired quickly probably need to be patient—and some of them very, very patient. A BioSpace LinkedIn poll this month found that 53% of respondents who are job hunting have been at it for at least six months and 27% for one year or longer.
A recent Monster survey showed similar results for the lengthier end of that timeline. It found that 25% of job seekers had been looking for work for over a year.
The BioSpace LinkedIn poll findings align with data from a survey late last year that informed the BioSpace 2026 U.S. Life Sciences Employment Outlook report. According to that data, 49% of unemployed respondents had been out of work for at least six months and 26% for more than a year.
Lengthy job searches can be challenging for biopharma professionals who need to quickly shore up their finances, regain health insurance or avoid long employment gaps. For some, the best option is taking positions they’re overqualified for. Biopharma professionals are increasingly turning to this form of underemployment, according to a BioSpace LinkedIn poll earlier this month. It found that 52% of respondents had recently accepted jobs they were overqualified for, up from 44% in March 2025.
Ghosting, ghost jobs lead list of job search frustrations
The length of time it takes to find biopharma work is not the only downside of job searches these days. To understand the pain points, BioSpace invited biotech and pharma professionals to share the most frustrating part of their searches via SurveyMonkey.
Most respondents called out job ghosting, which happens when applicants don’t receive follow-up communication from recruiters or prospective employers after direct contact, typically a screening or interview. One biopharma professional wrote, “Even a generic one would be appreciated, otherwise it feels like I’m sending resumes into a void.”
Not knowing if job postings are fake, a reference to ghost jobs, was another frustration respondents mentioned.
Job ghosting and ghost jobs are not new issues for biopharma professionals. They were the most frequently selected choices in an early 2025 BioSpace LinkedIn poll about candidates’ biggest job hunt pet peeves, at 35% and 34%, respectively.
Some of this month’s SurveyMonkey respondents also cited skill or degree requirements for positions as another frustration. One criticized jobs that require “extremely specific” experience, even for entry-level jobs, while another commented on a bachelor’s degree being required “when experience is all that is needed.”
Another respondent took issue with the way prospective employers view skills. They wrote that even when the skills required for jobs are transferable, applicants can be boxed into a specific therapeutic area rather than get a chance to grow or develop know-how in a different one.
In a sign of how competitive the biopharma job market has become, one survey respondent noted frustration with the response rate on applications. Their rate is 2% to 4% now compared to 10% to 20% 18 months ago, they wrote.
Another sign of the market’s competitiveness is continuing layoffs. With Takeda’s May 13 earnings presentation disclosure that it will cut about 4,500 employees during fiscal year 2026, May has become the worst month this year for biopharma layoffs, according to BioSpace tallies.* As of May 26, the number of people biotech and pharma companies cut or planned to cut hit 6,956, surging past the previous highest monthly total of 3,713 in February.
*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.
