Over the past 18 months, medical device companies have continued to conduct layoffs, cumulatively cutting thousands of positions to reduce costs, close facilities, or restructure operations.

According to MedTech Dive's analysis of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings, more than 14,000 employees in the medical device industry have been laid off or will lose their jobs in the coming months since the beginning of 2023.

The layoffs are not limited to specific segments or large companies with thousands of employees—medical technology companies of all sizes across various market segments in the United States have submitted WARN notices.

MedTech Dive analyzed industry WARN filings in state databases from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. The project shows that medical device companies have continued to cut positions while responding to macroeconomic pressures and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as after reporting a return to growth.

The diagnostics sector was hit hardest, with more than 5,000 layoffs during the analysis period, as testing demand in the field has significantly declined from the COVID-19 peak. Data shows that Cue Health alone laid off more than 1,200 employees. In May of this year, the company ultimately announced its closure.

Meanwhile, some giants in the medical device industry have also conducted layoffs, including Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Abbott, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Quarterly planned layoffs have declined after peaking in the second quarter of 2023 (over 4,000 people). Nevertheless, in the past three quarters, the number of affected positions in WARN filings has exceeded 1,800 each.

Methodology

MedTech Dive collected state WARN filings from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, and manually filtered out reports related to the medical device industry. The industry is defined as companies that produce medical device products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The reports cover all states except Arkansas, because that state does not have a public WARN database.

The WARN Act requires companies with 100 or more employees to provide at least 60 days' notice in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff affecting 50 or more people. However, there are some exceptions for troubled companies and unforeseeable circumstances. Some states, including California, New York, and New Jersey, have their own reporting requirements in addition to federal law.

For consistency, MedTech Dive's analysis is limited to state-level filings and does not include layoffs reported in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, general company announcements, or layoff plans outside the United States.

Most states report the submission date of WARN filings, but some states track the date the report was received. These states include Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. Minnesota and Pennsylvania only note the month and year of the filing.

Some states, such as California, report the number of employees at each affected location for each layoff. MedTech Dive combined filings from the same company on the same day in the same state after confirming they were not duplicates.

MedTech Dive removed Bionano Genomics' 2024 filing because of potential cross-state duplication. Bionano reported in a March SEC filing that it would lay off 110 to 125 employees.

Correction: The layoff table has been updated to correct a formatting error for 3M.