Will biotech hiring pace up?

There have been widespread layoffs in the biotech industry in recent years affecting many workers and a surge of candidates looking for positions in this sector. How is the outlook for 2026? To observe the expectations, I opened a LinkedIn Poll, directing the following question to a Genetics & Genomics interest group:  Do you believe that biotech hiring will pace up in 2026? The distributions of the answers are as follows:

I have no idea: 20%

It will pace up: 45%

It will remain the same: 20%

It will slow down: 15%

Rapid changes in the investing, political and fiscal environments left many people puzzled about the trends. 20% of the respondents have no idea about the hiring outlook. If we take a look at the remaining 80%, who has some idea, the distribution is as follows:

It will pace up: 56%

It will remain the same: 25%

It will slow down: 19%

Apparently, the community is generally optimistic about biotech hiring. More than half of the respondents who have some idea believe that it will pace up. After harsh years, the general belief seems to be that the worst is over and the biotech industry will increase their hiring. 

About a quarter of the respondents replied that the hiring will remain about the same. The hiring has been slow in the last few years. These respondents expect that this trend will continue for the next year. Only about one in five respondents expect further slow down in the hiring for the industry. 

To summarize, the community seems generally optimistic about biotech hiring in 2026, which is very promising news especially for those who are seeking positions. This may be attributed to the viewpoint that the hiring hit the bottom and the only way to go is upwards.

Personally, I see a bifurcated view in biotech hiring in 2026. Because of the global investing and economic environment, I expect that the price of capital (interest rates) will remain high in 2026. Hence, large pharmaceutical companies, with easy access to large amounts of capital, can increase their hiring while the hiring capabilities of the start-ups can remain relatively low. We will see what will happen in the future.