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Last updated: October 3, 2025 The heaviest R&D job losses this year cluster in hardware and semiconductors, with sizeable single events at Dell, Microsoft and Intel’s Oregon sites, while biopharma cuts are smaller per event but frequent as firms triage pipelines. Federal labs have also reduced staff amid budget uncertainty, including the CDC, NIH and…

“Science shouldn’t necessarily be impacted by a lot of outside factors, geopolitical, economic factors, but the reality is that it will be,” said Thomas Lograsso, director of the Critical Materials Innovation Hub at Ames National Laboratory and the 2025 R&D Leader of the Year. Lograsso has been with Ames Laboratory since 2007, also serving as…

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, Ph.D., who won the Nobel Prize in 2024, recently quipped: “I think for mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody.” While Hinton’s take may not represent a consensus view, generative artificial intelligence is already changing many jobs and industries. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025…

Hiring headaches are nothing new in STEM, where the pipeline of qualified scientists and engineers is in short supply. Engineering.com’s 2025 Engineering Salary Survey puts hard numbers behind the worries. Nearly 60% of the 591 surveyed engineers have been in the trenches for more than two decades, while newer graduates are relatively rare. In terms…

For Joshua New, Ph.D., distinguished R&D staff member at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and R&D World’s 2024 Researcher of the Year, innovation starts with a core instinct: “I do my level best to never lay my hand to an object or process without asking — how can this be made better?”…

After establishing the “Department of Government Efficiency” last month, President Trump has announced a DOGE “Workforce Optimization Initiative” that could have ramifications for thousands of science and regulatory roles across agencies—from the National Science Foundation to the FDA. In particular, the new executive order aims to reform the federal workforce. Agencies are required to limit…

“I am super confused how I got terminated. I still think this is an error.” “It is an engineering paradise, as everything is reinvented again here.” Two starkly different views of life at Meta—the first from a recently laid-off employee, the second from a Meta employee on Blind (where several workers have lamented that layoffs…

The world of software-based product development — at least in Big Tech — is chaotic of late. “In early 2025, tech layoffs are not only happening at a rapid clip, but these cuts are also getting ‘uglier.’” Yet according to a recent poll on the professional network Blind, most respondents (over 90% — 324 v.…

The race for AI adoption is reshaping the R&D workforce, with AI Engineer (#1) and AI consultant (#2) securing top spots in LinkedIn’s 2025 Jobs on the Rise report. Meanwhile, sustainability specialist (#9) and semiconductor-oriented roles such as instrumentation & control engineer (#24) reflect continued growth in both “pure tech” and physical-world sectors. Although AI…

As tech giants use AI to automate traditional coding tasks, companies are simultaneously cutting lower-performing roles while competing for AI talent—creating a two-track job market where AI expertise increasingly defines career prospects. During a recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dished on the company’s plans for its continued push into…

The past couple of years have delivered a paradox for STEM talent in the U.S. Despite macroeconomic headwinds prompting notable job cuts at employers from Big Tech to Big Pharma, science- and engineering-focused firms still struggle to find the specialized expertise they need. Recent Indicators reports from the National Science Board (NSB) describe an “accelerating…

For many workers, it pays to have a job in an R&D or STEM-heavy field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts 10.4% growth in STEM jobs through 2033, more than double the overall employment growth rate of 4%. However, the technology sector has experienced significant restructuring in 2024, with approximately 150,000 job cuts across more…

Tech giants are assembling AI supercomputers of unprecedented scale. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Elon Musk’s xAI are building clusters boasting 100,000 or more H100 GPUs, with xAI planning to double its Colossus system to 200,000 GPUs — including the upcoming H200 model. To put this in perspective, OpenAI reportedly trained GPT-4 using roughly 25,000 A100…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for hardware companies. For a handful of hardware companies, 2024 was a tough year. Intel, Dell, AMD, IBM jointly cut more than 23,000 jobs this year. Intel alone slashed 15,000 positions as it targeted $10 billion in cost savings by 2025. The PC…

Land a six-figure salary and work from your couch? That’s a tangible possibility in the current R&D job market, and specialized skills could be an asset. While some sectors are still reeling from layoffs, there are a considerable number of job openings across R&D roles. Geographic distribution of R&D jobs/salary ranges While California has seen…