Johns Hopkins University lays off over 100 employees due to federal research cuts

The Johns Hopkins University is laying off roughly 110 employees across multiple schools and offices as it endures historic federal funding challenges.

The layoffs this week impact the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey School of Business and the central administration, university spokesperson Doug Donovan said.

“As our federal research portfolio shrinks the infrastructure around it must change in parallel,” he wrote in a statement.

Last year, the university initiated a hiring freeze, eliminated vacant positions and reduced discretionary spending to control costs, Donovan said. But those efforts weren’t enough to prevent another round of layoffs.

“While these efforts ensured that employment actions would be a last resort, this week, roughly 110 employees, primarily serving administrative functions, were laid off from university administration and other divisions,” Donovan said.

This is just the latest financial blow facing the research university, which has historically received the most federal funding of any higher education institution since 1979. Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the university has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.

Last year, Hopkins conducted its largest round of layoffs in the institution’s history, shedding over 2,000 jobs worldwide due to cuts to U.S. Agency for International Development funding.

Earlier this month, Hopkins announced it was increasing its in-house research awards by nearly $50 million and cutting administrative costs as it faced a “debilitating” lag in federal funding. To fund the new endeavor, the university pledged to spend 10% less on its central administration and nearly 20% less on construction and renovation over five years.

In 2025, the value of the university’s multiyear federal research portfolio declined by more than $500 million. The university received 43% less federal research funding and 28% fewer awards than in 2024.

Hopkins has also launched a public campaign to support research and nearly doubled its spending on lobbyists since 2024.

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