Increases in Job Growth, VC Funding Point to Improving Demand for US Life Sciences Lab Space

The U.S. life sciences industry’s recovery has reached an inflection point with leading indicators like strengthening job growth in core industries and increased venture capital investment signaling better conditions ahead for building owners grappling with high lab-vacancy rates, according to a new report from CBRE.

In the report, titled “6 Life Sciences Talent Trends Driving Property Demand,” CBRE spotlights the highest rate of year-over-year job growth in nearly three years – 1.7% as of April -- for two key life sciences subsectors: biotechnology research & development and pharmaceutical & medicine manufacturing.

Several markets, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York City, notched record levels of life sciences employment in biotechnology research & development and pharmaceutical & medicine manufacturing last year. Each also recorded additional job growth in those professions so far this year.

Meanwhile, U.S. life sciences venture capital investment – which declined in 2022 and 2023 -- has rebounded in recent years, including a 33% increase in investment in H1 2026 versus H1 2025. Among the markets posting the largest gains in venture-capital funding for life sciences companies from 2024 to 2025 are San Francisco, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Austin, Pittsburgh, Houston and Chicago.

The early stages of the sector’s recovery have contributed to a slight change in CBRE’s annual ranking of U.S. life sciences markets. The top overall markets for life sciences R&D remain Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York-New Jersey. Meanwhile, Raleigh-Durham (now ranked fifth), Denver-Boulder (10th), Madison, Wis. (13th), Dallas-Fort Worth (14th) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (15th) all climbed one spot in the rankings.

“Gains in jobs and venture-capital funding bode well for demand for lab space down the line,” said Ian Anderson, CBRE Director of Research and Analysis. “The industry has more hurdles to clear – namely significant vacancy and further implementation of artificial intelligence – but growth in jobs and funding provides the foundation for the recovery to build on.”

Aggressive construction of lab space during and since the pandemic led to higher vacancies as life sciences funding eventually declined. The average vacancy rate across the top 13 U.S. life sciences markets was 23.2% as of this year’s first quarter, just below its record high of 23.3% from last year’s third quarter. Renewed demand from life sciences companies and from alternative users like advanced manufacturing, clean energy and deep tech stands to lower that number.

The report marks the fifth consecutive year that CBRE has ranked U.S. life sciences markets by weighing a combination factors including each market’s number and density of key life sciences jobs, its number of college graduates with life-sciences degrees, its density and total of life sciences PhDs and its total of people working in the professional, scientific and technical services industries.