U.S. Bioscience Jobs Rise 7% Across 41 States

Industry groups report 2.31 million direct bioscience jobs in 2025, a trend that signals continued workforce expansion beyond traditional hubs.

Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Biotech

Isometric editorial illustration of a row of bioreactor vessels and steel tubing on a plain laboratory bench in muted teal, cream, and slate. — U.S. bioscience employment rose 7% from 2021 to 2025, reaching 2.31 million direct jobs across 41 states, industry groups reported. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Council of State Bioscience Associations report that U.S. bioscience employment rose 7% from 2021 to 2025, with the industry directly employing 2.31 million people across more than 156,000 businesses in 2025. This is an industry-reported employment tally, not a forecast or a new product.

Why it matters

Employment growth in bioscience signals where the biotech workforce is expanding, with gains spread across 41 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The shift reflects a broader movement of biotech activity beyond its traditional hubs, as business establishments grew 22% over the same period.

The figures are direct employment counts and establishment tallies compared across 2021 and 2025, not measures of research output or productivity. The report does not provide methodology detail beyond the two-year comparison in the stub.

The players

Biotechnology Innovation Organization

The main U.S. trade group for biotechnology companies, which co-produced this employment report with state associations.

Council of State Bioscience Associations

A coalition of state-level bioscience trade groups that co-produced the report tracking employment across the states.

BioSpace

A life sciences media and career platform that published the report.

The details

Bioscience employment is counted as direct jobs at businesses classified within the sector, so the 2.31 million figure captures workers at biotech firms and related establishments rather than indirect jobs in supplier industries. The 22% rise in business establishments indicates that new companies are being formed or registered at a faster rate than employment is growing, a pattern consistent with an industry adding many smaller firms. Research, testing and medical laboratories, a subset of the sector, grew 8.1% and now employ more than 779,000 people, which points to continued demand for the lab-based work that drug and diagnostic development depends on.

2021 serves as the baseline year for the employment comparison.
2025 is the year of the reported employment and establishment data.
The report was published by BioSpace on November 2, 2026.

The Tech Race

This report measures the domestic bioscience workforce rather than competing research programs, so it does not directly place U.S. firms against rival national efforts. Its figures describe the sector's expansion within the United States across the 2021-to-2025 window.

The employment gains indicate more openings in bioscience across a wider set of states, though the report does not specify the job categories or wage levels in most locations. Availability of these roles depends on each state's local employers, and the stub provides no timeline for when hiring trends will shift further.

The takeaway

Watch for the next release of this employment series to see whether the 7% national gain holds and whether California's 1.5% decline reverses in later data. The 22% growth in establishments is a figure to track alongside employment to judge whether new firms are hiring.