While biotech layoffs are continuing to add up in 2023 and impacting 1,200+ workers in Maryland, BioBuzz has compiled a list of job & career resources below that can help those who need them.
After four years of a booming life sciences job market the Maryland biotech industry has been hit with more than 1,222 layoffs in the past 12 months, according to the State of Maryland’s Work Adjustment and Retraining Notifications registry. These layoffs equal 2.26% of the Maryland life science workforce. Most recently, Emergent BioSolutions announced the laying off over 200+ people and reducing their BayView CDMO to just a small crew. This comes on the heels of Novavax laying off 25% of their workforce, about 500 people, in March and Catalent letting go of 135 in January; to name a few of the larger layoff announcements that have impacted Maryland workers.
Maryland Biotech Layoffs over past 12 months:
- Jason Pharmaceuticals (d/b/a Medifast, Inc.) eliminated 134 employees in September, 2022
- Jubilant Cadista Pharmaceuticals Inc. laid off 80 employees in November 2022
- Emergent announced 132 layoffs across the company in January 2023
- Catalent laid off 135 in Gaithersburg & Rockville effective January 2023
- Neximmune laid off 22 in January 2023
- Pandemic Response Lab eliminated 21 employees in January 2023
- Novavax laid off approximately 500 employees (25% of workforce) in March 2023
- Adaptive Phage Therapeutics laid off 22 employees in May 2o23
- Nutramax Laboratories let go 43 staff effective in June 2o23
- Ellume USA laid off 37 workers in Frederick in July 2023
- Emergent: Aug 8th – 231 workers in Maryland in August 2023
Our hearts go out to all of those who have been impacted by these challenging times. While the current state of the market is concerning, the fundamentals of the Maryland biotech market remain optimistically strong and are poised to rebound more robust than before. The Biohealth Capital Region was just recognized by GEN as the #3 Top US Biotech Cluster, a goal that regional leaders have been aiming for since 2016. The greater Washington region also ranked 3rd among 25 U.S. metros for life science talent in 2023 according to CBRE.
However, 2023’s recessionary period is delivering a major setback from the previously forecasted decade-long biotech boom and has caused significant atrophy across the industry where many companies are shrinking or remaining stagnant, and new or early-stage companies are not getting the funding they need to grow. The result is that the biotech jobs that were once so abundant, are no longer there.
The additional challenge in the Biotech industry is that most companies have many niche positions, so not everybody from one company can just roll into another job at another firm. The specialized nature of jobs in this field makes re-employment in biotech much more difficult than in other industries.
Today’s historic job losses in the industry are reminiscent to the economic climate we experienced during the 2008 – 2009 recession that saw more than 5,000 jobs get cut across the US. Here in the Baltimore region several major manufacturers decided to shut down their Maryland operations during that time; including Lonza (Baltimore, -475), Baxter (Beltsville, -106), Actavis (Baltimore, -80) and Shire (Owings Mills, -260). The series of plant closures resulted in nearly 1,000 biotech workers being unemployed within a 12 month period, during a time where few companies were hiring.
It was during that time of employment crisis that we launched BioBuzz in 2009 with a clear mission to foster a stronger, more connected biotech workforce and to build a community who can support one another in good times and in bad. That mission still stands true today.
It’s times like these that we need to rally around one another and support each other so that we can turn this crisis into an opportunity to do more and do better.
We already see this happening as a result of today’s employment challenges.
Within days of the announcement BioBuzz received a message from Randy Seiler, a Senior Manager of Process Engineering who was one of the impacted Emergent Employees. Randy didn’t message us looking for work though. He reached out to let us know that he was already working to organize a job fair specifically for his teammates who were being laid off and asked if we would help him to organize it. Which we wholeheartedly agreed to, so stay tuned.
This type of servant leadership from Randy, and others like him, reflects the importance of be part of a close community. It’s the willingness to rise up to support one another when times are tough.
Community has always been the beating heart that fuels BioBuzz and we have continued to try to innovate and adjust based on the demands of the industry at the time. Now is no different.
That’s why BioBuzz is launching a novel life science talent marketplace platform to support our community with better employer matching solutions that will help all of the amazing talent in our region, especially those who are now unemployed, to get matched with the incredible companies who need them. We have envisioned a new model for talent matching that operates with less friction and more transparency than existing platforms like job boards.
If you are an Employer or a Job Seeker and would like early access to this new service – sign up here.
In the meantime here are some immediate ways that BioBuzz hopes we can help anyone in our community who has found themselves unemployed in this market:
Events:
- Meso Scale Diagnostics – Job Fair – Sept 12th
- Baltimore Job Fair for employees impacted by recent layoffs – coming soon
- PDA Capital Area Chapter – Whiskey & Chill event on Sept 14th
- The CRB Annual Oktoberfest networking event on October 19th
Resources:
- BioBuzz Open to Work list
- BioBuzz’s new Talent Lab
- BioBuzz Career Resources can help your job search (sign up for our Weekly Jobs Newsletter) We also have some Featured Employers who are hiring in Maryland
- Maryland Department of Commerce Workforce Services
- The BiohubMaryland is a job board by the Maryland Tech Council
- Check out these Greatest Workplaces in Maryland and Philadelphia
- Women In Bio Career Center
- NIIMBL Job Board
Time to upskill & reskill:
- AABB Cell Therapy Certification
- BioTrain courses, workshops and seminars
- Bio–Trac: Biotechnology Training Workshops for Research Scientists featuring the latest relevant laboratory techniques taught by industry experts.
- BTI: (BTI) provides specialized, tuition-free, scientific training of entry-level biotechnicians for employment in biotechnology.
- Montgomery College Biotechnology Certificate Program & New Cell Therapy Certificate Program
- Frederick Community College Biotech programs
- UMBC’s Translational Life Science & Technology (TLST) degree program
If there is anything else that you feel that BioBuzz can do for the community please feel free to contact me personally at chris (at) biobuzz.io.
