Biotech layoffs and bioinformaticians

Recently, I directed this question to bioinformaticians in the pharma and biotech industry in a LinkedIn poll: "Have you or your colleagues been affected by the layoffs in the industry since 2023?" Let’s go over the responses briefly.

Not me or my colleagues: 21%

Only a little over 20% of the respondents answered that neither they nor their colleagues were affected by the recent layoffs, which means that nearly 80 percent of the respondents either faced or witnessed layoffs in their workplace. This shows how widespread the recent layoffs in the biotech industry is. The start-ups and small biotech companies are especially heavily affected by the contraction of global money supply, some of them winding down their operations completely. This is a clear indication that the biotech industry is not spared from the overall trend in the economic activities world-wide.

I am affected myself: 34%

About a third of the respondents replied that they were affected individually by the recent layoffs. Although bioinformaticians are generally in high demand, this result indicates that they were not immune from the layoffs in the industry. They may have a relative advantage though, as their computational skills are transferable to other industries which are less severely affected by the slow down.

Not me, but my colleagues were: 45%

Nearly half of the respondents replied that although they were not affected by the layoffs, their colleagues were. This suggests that the bioinformaticians are relatively in a better position than their colleagues, though the difference is not very high to make them feel secure.