Jeremy Liew thought a PhD in chemistry would secure his future in Boston's world-famous biotech industry.

But more than a year after earning his doctorate, the 31-year-old has applied for over 500 jobs across the region and still has no offer.

Liew moved to Boston from New Jersey in 2018, drawn by the city's dense cluster of biotech firms, research labs, and universities. Like many graduate students, he assumed that years of advanced training would lead naturally to a stable, well-paid science career, according to Wall Street Journal.

After graduating last year, Liew burned through savings, temporarily enrolled in government food assistance, and cut expenses wherever possible. To afford rent in a Boston suburb, he began working part time for an artificial-intelligence startup, a job far outside the career path he had prepared for.

He is now considering biotech recruiting messages from overseas, including China, where the industry is expanding more aggressively.

"The industry really is booming in China," he said, adding that many people have urged him to apply abroad, MSN reported.

Liew's experience reflects a broader slowdown rippling through Boston's biotech ecosystem. Once considered one of the safest employment pipelines for highly educated workers in the U.S., the sector is now struggling under a combination of tighter venture capital funding, rising interest rates and uncertainty around government research support.

Massachusetts saw a decline in biotech research-and-development jobs in 2024 after years of steady growth, including during the pandemic. Federal data shows job losses continued into at least mid-2025, while hiring has remained sluggish.

The slowdown is visible across the city. By late September, nearly 28% of laboratory space in greater Boston was sitting vacant, according to real-estate estimates. In Kendall Square, the life-sciences hub next to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, vacancy rates have surged from near zero in 2021 to double digits.

Industry leaders say startups have been hit especially hard.

According to MassBio’s 2025 Industry Snapshot, venture capital investment in Massachusetts biotech fell to its lowest first-half level since 2017, shrinking the pool of early-stage jobs that once absorbed waves of new PhD graduates. Average seed funding rounds are now roughly a third smaller than they were three years ago.

The effects extend beyond laboratories. Restaurants and small businesses that once thrived on weekday crowds of researchers and office workers say foot traffic has dropped noticeably as layoffs mount and expansion plans stall.

Some companies are retreating. Several developers have paused large lab construction projects, while smaller biotech firms have downsized to stretch limited funding, Boston Globe reported.

For young scientists, the shift has been disorienting. Graduates with elite credentials are sending out hundreds of applications, accepting short-term or unrelated work, or leaving the region entirely. Others are abandoning the life sciences field after a decade or more of education.

State officials warn that prolonged weakness could trigger a talent drain. Boston's high housing costs were long justified by biotech salaries and career stability. Without those guarantees, competing states and overseas markets are increasingly attractive. (VnExpress International)