Some of New Jersey‘s largest pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are reducing their staff, including Bayer, RWJBarnabas Health and Bristol Myers Squibb, as the companies face uncertain financing and struggle with new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Nationally, small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies will eliminate at least 10,000 jobs in 2023, according to an analysis by the business publication BioPharma Dive.
But larger companies, including Pfizer and Amazon’s healthcare division, also suffered cuts, according to Quartz.
The report notes that most of the layoffs occurred in smaller companies that faced more uncertain access to financing from investors.
Overall in the health care sector, there were 150,000 layoffs nationwide between March 2023 and March 2024, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 145,000 layoffs in all of 2023 and 107,000 in 2022.
According to a survey by software company Tebra, one in three healthcare employees experienced layoffs in their workplace last year.
Huge changes due to disruptive technology
And year-over-year job cuts in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors grew 28%, according to data provided by Andy Challenger, senior vice president of New York City-based job search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“This space is undergoing a huge shift, certainly due to disruptive technology, as these companies implement AI into their medical research and automate certain functions,” he said.
“This change is also due to changes in research and development, drug failures, the end of vaccine manufacturing in the pandemic era, consumer preferences and the regulatory environment,” Challenger said.
In New Jersey, larger, more established companies are also cutting their workforces.
These are the companies that have so far announced layoffs this year, according to “WARN” notices filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor:
- Reckitt Benckiser, Mead Johnson and RB Health in Parsippany, 100 employees
- RWJBarnabas Health in West Orange, 79 employees
- Kenvue at Skillman, 51 employees
- Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in Flanders, 162 employees
- Bayer in Whippany, 35 employees
- Bristol Myers Squibb in Lawrenceville, 863 employees in two layoffs
And these companies announced 2,024 layoffs in 2023:
$1.5 billion in cost reductions at Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol Myers Squibb said it was embarking on $1.5 billion in cost-cutting measures through the end of 2025, including mass layoffs.
And CVS’s layoffs were part of a company-wide restructuring, a spokesperson said.
Most of the health care cuts fall on administrative staff (let alone doctors and nurses), according to a report by the trade publication Fierce Health Care.
However, cuts in health care have not been as severe as in the pharmaceutical sector, said Challenger of the New York City job search firm.
“In many organizations there is a constant shortage of doctors and nurses,” he said.
Daniel Muñoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.