Evolving Workforces
U.S. Life Sciences Talent Trends 2025
Resilient U.S. Life Sciences Talent Base Endures Industry Challenges
June 16, 2025 10 Minute Read
Executive Summary
- U.S. life sciences employment reached a record 2.1 million in March 2025 before falling measurably in April, underscoring the fragility of growth in 2025.
- While life sciences job growth resumed after a slight drop in 2024, it is still far from robust as growth remains fragile, unemployment slightly higher and layoffs elevated.
- Relatively resilient employment, coupled with space rightsizing by life sciences occupiers, has reduced the average square footage per employee of lab/R&D space to its lowest level in over three years.
- Although there was a record number of U.S. life sciences graduates in the 2023 academic year, the pace of growth slowed considerably.
- Boston-Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C.-Baltimore and New York-New Jersey remain the top-ranked U.S. clusters for life sciences research & development (R&D) talent for the fourth consecutive year.
- Boston-Cambridge surpassed New York-New Jersey atop our rankings of life sciences manufacturing talent this year, while Minneapolis-St. Paul eclipsed Los Angeles-Orange County as the top medtech talent market.
U.S. Life Sciences Talent Trends
The life sciences industry has endured challenging circumstances for more than three years, reflected in weaker life sciences real estate dynamics. However, the industry’s employment base and world-leading talent have withstood many of these negative forces.
Considering the steep declines in equity market valuations, as well as venture capital funding and life sciences real estate occupancy, the 0.8% drop in U.S. life sciences employment between August 2023 and August 2024 appears remarkable. A resumption of job growth through March 2025 pushed total U.S. life sciences employment to a record 2.1 million before pulling back in April, underscoring the fragility of growth in 2025.
In the current cycle, life sciences employment began waning in the summer of 2022 but managed to sluggishly increase through August 2023. However, employment began contracting over the next 12 months. Assuming that the worst effects of this cycle have passed based on the recent momentum in employment, the net effect has been only a 0.8% reduction in life sciences payrolls. This decline is mild compared with the one-month 3.2% drop in April 2020 at the outset of the COVID pandemic and the 1.9% declines during both the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the 1993-1995 financial crisis (Figure 1). Life sciences job growth was slowly catching up to total non-farm payroll growth this year (Figure 2) before falling in April.
Figure 1: Total U.S. Life Sciences Employment During Recent Economic Cycles
Figure 2: Life Sciences vs. Total Employment Growth, Year-over-Year
0.8%
Drop in U.S. life sciences employment between August 2023 and 2024
Despite improving labor conditions this year, the life sciences job market still faces several challenges. The unemployment rate for life, physical & social sciences occupations nearly doubled over the past year to 3.1% in April, while the overall unemployment rate increased by only 40 basis points to 3.9% (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Unemployment Rates for Select Occupations
3.1%
Unemployment rate for life, physical & social sciences occupations
3.9%
Overall unemployment rate
Life science industry layoffs began to accelerate in March after a general downward trend since January 2023 (Figure 4). However, pharmaceutical industry layoffs are significantly lower so far this year compared with January through April of last year (Figure 5).
Figure 4: Life Sciences Industry Layoff Announcements (3-month rolling average)
Figure 5: Year-to-Date Announced Pharmaceutical Industry Layoffs Through April
U.S. colleges and universities continue to produce record numbers of life sciences graduates. Biological/biomedical sciences degrees and certificates totaling a record 174,692 in the 2022-2023 academic year have continued to grow, albeit at a slower pace (Figures 6 and 7).
Figure 6: Total Biological/Biomedical Sciences Degrees & Certificates
Figure 7: Year-over-Year Change in Degrees & Certificates Issued
The average amount of occupied lab/R&D space per life sciences employee fell to its lowest level in more than three years in Q1 2025 (Figure 8) due to occupier rightsizing and resilient life sciences employment. This densification trend will likely continue until supply and demand comes closer to equilibrium.
Figure 8: Occupied Lab/R&D Space per U.S. Pharma/Biotech Employee
Source: CBRE Research, Q2 2025.
This report examines the U.S. life sciences workforce in three key areas: R&D, manufacturing and medtech. The top 100 largest markets are assessed by the number and density of occupations in their respective industry subsets as shown in Figure 9. Emerging talent, represented by college graduates with degrees and certificates in biological/ biomedical sciences, is among our criteria for top talent markets.
Figure 9: Life Sciences Occupations in R&D, Manufacturing and Medtech
Figure 10: Top-Ranked Life Sciences Clusters
Life Sciences R&D Talent
Boston-Cambridge widened its lead this year in our rankings of top markets for life sciences R&D talent, leading the nation with the most bioengineers, biomedical engineers, biochemists, biophysicists, medical scientists and biological technicians.
The San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C.-Baltimore and New York-New Jersey were next in rank order for the second consecutive year. The Bay Area continues to have a broad array of quality R&D talent across occupations, particularly high-tech. Washington, D.C.-Baltimore and New York-New Jersey also have a wide range of quality talent, but their competitive edge is from their large amounts of emerging talent graduating from their universities.
Los Angeles-Orange County and Raleigh-Durham placed fifth and sixth in our rankings for the second consecutive year, while Philadelphia surpassed San Diego for seventh place. Houston jumped three spots to round out the top 10.
Three new markets were among the top 25 for life sciences R&D talent this year: Worcester, MA, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Although a relatively small Massachusetts metro, Worcester scored very well in its density of various R&D occupations, including the second-highest concentration of bio specialists. Cincinnati has the nation’s third-highest concentration of such workers.
Figure 11: Life Sciences Research & Development Talent Ranking
Top life sciences R&D talent pools are heavily influenced by each market’s number of core life sciences R&D occupations: biochemists, biophysicists, bioengineers, biomedical engineers, biological scientists and biological technicians. Boston-Cambridge widened its lead in this category, accounting for nearly 13% of these roles nationwide.
Washington, D.C.-Baltimore, New York-New Jersey and Philadelphia rose in the ranking this year, eclipsing the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Los Angeles-Orange County.
Smaller markets that have notable concentrations of core roles include Worcester, Madison, Raleigh-Durham, Trenton-Princeton and Albany. Larger markets like San Diego and Boston-Cambridge also had sizable concentrations.
Figure 12: Total Core Life Sciences R&D Roles by Market
Figure 13: Core R&D Share of All Occupations per Market
Boston-Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area lead the nation for annual median wages of life sciences occupations, followed by Washington, D.C.-Baltimore. These markets offer an abundance of the nation's leading life sciences talent, but also higher wages.
Among the other top 10 markets, Raleigh-Durham, Philadelphia and Houston have lower wages in more occupations, making them more affordable destinations for life sciences R&D talent. Chicago has four life sciences R&D occupations with wages that are among the lowest in the top 25 markets. Pittsburgh, Austin and Salt Lake City have the most occupations with the lowest wages at five.
Figure 14: Annual Median Wage by Life Sciences R&D Occupation for Top 25 Markets
A steady supply of college graduates with life sciences degrees and certificates is essential for any market to quickly replenish and enhance the existing workforce. Leaders in this category are New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange County, Washington, D.C.-Baltimore and Boston-Cambridge. Philadelphia also has an abundant pipeline of new talent.
Figure 15: Top 25 Markets for Life Sciences Degrees & Certificates
Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, CBRE Research, Q2 2025.
Figure 16 shows the correlation between the number of specialty degrees and certificates in life sciences fields and the size of a market’s existing life sciences R&D talent pool.
In short, the greater the number of graduates that specialize in these key life sciences disciplines (e.g., biochemistry, biophysics, biomedical engineering, neurobiology), the greater the size of their existing R&D talent bases, which reflect dynamic life sciences and health-care ecosystems.
Figure 16: Graduates in Specialty Life Sciences Disciplines vs. Total Life Sciences R&D Talent
The quality of a market’s life sciences talent pool can also be measured by its number of PhDs granted each year in a life sciences field. Nineteen of the 25 markets issuing the most doctorates in the 2022-2023 academic year were among our top 25 markets for R&D talent (Figure 17). The other six markets with very high issuance of PhDs—Ann Arbor, Nashville, Gainesville, FL, St. Louis, College Station, TX and Columbus—are supported by major research universities. These six markets have also historically scored well in our annual rankings and offer life sciences companies sizable pools of emerging talent.
Among markets that issued at least 1,000 life sciences college degrees and certificates, San Antonio and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore had the largest increases of 10.5% and 10.4%, respectively, from the prior academic year. The University of Texas in San Antonio and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore issued the most life sciences degrees. Among our top 25 markets for life sciences R&D talent, Raleigh-Durham and Boston-Cambridge also had impressive year-over-year increases in life sciences degrees. Among markets not among our top 25, Tucson and Phoenix had the strongest gains in this category.
Figure 17: Total Life Sciences PhD Degrees Granted by Market
Figure 18: Year-over-Year Growth in Life Sciences Degrees & Certificates Granted by Market
Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, CBRE Research, Q2 2025.
Life Sciences Manufacturing Talent
Our evaluation of the nation’s most favorable talent pools for life sciences manufacturing encompasses a broad set of criteria, including the operation of high-volume pharmaceutical production facilities and more specialized cell and gene therapy facilities.
Our rankings are heavily influenced by each market’s density of biological and chemical technicians, as well as less specialized roles such as industrial production managers, inspectors and packaging operators.
We enhanced our methodology this year to adjust for the variation in labor costs across markets by incorporating the average annual median wage for biological and chemical technicians. This new datapoint aims to account for the cost advantage many occupiers seek in manufacturing operations.
Boston-Cambridge surpassed New York-New Jersey this year as the leading market for life sciences manufacturing talent. Three other markets made notable gains in our rankings, each jumping three spots: Washington, D.C.-Baltimore, Denver-Boulder and Seattle. These three all had sizable gains in the number of biological and chemical technicians or favorable cost advantages for these occupations.
Three new markets broke into this category’s top 25 ranking this year: Tampa-St. Petersburg, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Salt Lake City. These markets also benefited from gains in the number of biological and chemical technicians or favorable cost advantages for these occupations.
Figure 19: Life Sciences Manufacturing Talent Ranking
One of the more important criteria for evaluating a market’s life sciences manufacturing talent is its number and density of core biological and chemical technicians. The top four markets for these occupations (Boston-Cambridge, New York-New Jersey, San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore) are also the highest-ranked markets for life sciences R&D talent, showing how important these occupations are to a broader life sciences ecosystem.
Figure 20: Core Life Sciences Manufacturing Occupations by Market
Boston-Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area have the highest wages for these core life sciences manufacturing occupations, partly because of their relatively highest cost of living, but also due to their leading positions as hubs for life sciences biomanufacturing. With a significant presence of chemical companies, Houston and Philadelphia both have strong demand chemical technicians, thus boosting their average manufacturing wages.
In contrast, three leading life sciences markets have below-average wages for core manufacturing occupations: Washington, D.C.-Baltimore, Denver-Boulder and Raleigh-Durham. Washington, D.C.-Baltimore, which has an above-average cost of living, may offer cost advantages due to much of its life sciences manufacturing base located in more peripheral locations. The relatively low wages in Denver-Boulder and Raleigh-Durham underscore why these markets attract such interest and activity from life sciences manufacturers.
Other ancillary occupations that can support life sciences manufacturing activity but are more commonly found in other industries do not factor into our ranking criteria as strongly. These include industrial production managers, inspectors and packaging operators. As shown in Figure 22, Chicago, Los Angeles-Orange County, New York-New Jersey, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have the most of these occupations, largely because of their many manufacturing, logistics and distribution operations.
Figure 21: Average Annual Median Wage of Core Life Sciences Manufacturing Occupations
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, CBRE Research, Q2 2025.
Figure 22: Ancillary Life Sciences Manufacturing Occupations by Market
Life Sciences Medtech Talent
Our rankings for top medtech talent pools are heavily influenced by the size and density of two key occupations: bioengineers and medical appliance technicians. We also consider each market’s emerging life sciences talent in terms of life sciences college degrees and the concentration of professional, scientific and technical services workers.
Minneapolis-St. Paul replaced Los-Angeles-Orange County for this year’s leading medtech talent market, with a big gain in its medtech share of total occupations.
Boston-Cambridge ranked a strong third, while the San Francisco Bay Area, New York-New Jersey, Chicago, and San Diego comprised a third tier of high-ranked markets. For the first time this year, Cincinnati and Indianapolis broke into the top 25.
Figure 23: Medtech Talent Ranking
The occupations in which we evaluate each market’s medtech talent are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are a combination of engineering, biological, medical and tech talent, which we have estimated for the top 100 life sciences markets (Figure 24). Among the top 100 markets for medtech talent, Los Angeles-Orange County leads with a 20% share, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul with 17% and Boston-Cambridge with 11%.
Figure 24: Estimated Medtech Talent in Top 100 Markets by Occupation
Figure 25: Share of Medtech Talent by Market
Minneapolis-St. Paul rose in this year’s ranking for medtech talent due to its high share of medtech among all occupations within its market. More than 1.2% of all occupations in Minneapolis-St. Paul are medtech-related, double that of the next highest concentration in Boston-Cambridge. Small markets with strong concentrations of metech talent include Milwaukee, Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh.
Figure 26: Medtech Talent Share of All Occupations by Market
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