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New Jersey Unemployment Claims Guide
A step-by-step guide to completing your New Jersey unemployment claim online.
By Megan Fernandez and Katie Sobko, NorthJersey.com
Some of New Jersey’s largest pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, including Bayer, RWJBarnabas Health and Bristol-Myers Squibb, are cutting jobs as they struggle with cash flow and new technologies like artificial intelligence.
Nationwide, small and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies are expected to cut at least 10,000 jobs in 2023, according to an analysis by business magazine BioPharma Dive.
However, some major companies, including Pfizer and Amazon’s healthcare division, have also made layoffs, according to Quartz.
The report noted that most of the layoffs were at smaller companies where fundraising from investors is more uncertain.
The health care sector as a whole is expected to see 150,000 job layoffs nationwide between March 2023 and March 2024, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. There will be 145,000 layoffs in all of 2023 and 107,000 in 2022.
According to a survey by software company Tebra, one in three health care workers have been laid off from their job in the past year.
Major changes brought about by disruptive technologies
And job cuts in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector rose 28% from a year ago, according to data provided by Andy Challenger, senior vice president at New York City-based job-search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“The sector is undoubtedly undergoing significant change due to disruptive technologies as these companies introduce AI into medical research and automate certain functions,” he said.
“This shift is also due to shifts in research and development, drug failures, the demise of pandemic-era vaccine manufacturing, consumer preferences and the regulatory environment,” Challenger said.
Larger, more established companies in New Jersey are also cutting jobs.
According to WARN notices filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor, the following companies have announced layoffs so far this year:
- Reckitt Benckiser, Mead Johnson and RB Health in Parsippany, 100 employees
- RWJBarnabas Health in West Orange, 79 employees
- Kenview, Skillman, 51 employees
- Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in Flanders, 162 employees
- Bayer, Whippany, 35 employees
- Bristol-Myers Squibb in Lawrenceville lays off 863 employees in two rounds
And the following companies have announced job cuts of 2,024 people in 2023:
Bristol-Myers Squibb to cut costs by $1.5 billion
Bristol-Myers Squibb said it will undertake a $1.5 billion cost-cutting initiative by the end of 2025, including mass layoffs.
CVS’s job cuts are part of a company-wide restructuring, a spokesman said.
Most of the cuts to healthcare costs will fall on administrative staff, to a lesser extent on doctors and nurses, according to a report by industry publication Fierce Healthcare.
But the cuts to health care costs haven’t been as severe as they have been for the pharmaceutical industry, said Challenger, a New York City job search firm.
“Many organizations continue to have shortages of doctors and nurses,” he said.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: email address; twitter:Daniel Munoz and Facebook
