Laid off from Charles River Laboratories.

What Charles River Laboratories layoffs have meant for employees

Most of Charles River's 2025 restructuring charges were tied to facilities rather than to people. Its 10-K for 2025 books $70.8 million of that year's $99.8 million in restructuring costs as asset impairments and other costs, the categories it links to consolidating facilities, against a smaller sum for severance and transition; in 2024 the severance side had been the larger share. The filing describes the approach as consolidating sites and reducing staffing to match demand, projected about $300 million in annualized savings by the end of 2026, and put year-end 2025 headcount about 2% lower than a year before. If you're reading a restructuring charge in Charles River's results for what it says about jobs, severance and transition is the line the filing ties to workforce cuts, and in 2025 it was the smaller part.

Both company-wide cuts on record came with or soon after a report of falling sales. In 2009 the cut came in the same February 9 release that reported lower fourth-quarter sales, and the 2024 cut, which a spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech, followed a second quarter in which revenue fell in its discovery and safety assessment and research models businesses. Neither was framed around a single site the way the later closings were; the 2009 reduction was set to fall mostly on preclinical services, and the 2024 one was made across the company. Both were announced within weeks of the results that showed the decline, so a weak quarterly report has twice arrived with or shortly before a company-wide cut.

After a review encouraged by its largest shareholder, Elliott Investment Management, Charles River said in November 2025 it would shed businesses worth about 7% of its projected revenue and aimed to save $70 million a year, and a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech that moving research-model production out of Wilmington was part of that plan. The Hanover closing came amid an announced restructuring, a February 2026 report noted, as chief operating officer Birgit Girshick was set to succeed Jim Foster as chief executive in May. For people in Wilmington, the cut concerned where Charles River makes research models.

Moving to another Charles River job has come up in several cuts, and in Durham, Wilmington and Hanover the company spoke of it for certain or some of the staff rather than everyone, beginning with what a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech about Durham. In 2019, when it decided to close its San Diego research-model facility, it told Fierce it would support people looking for work both inside and outside the company. Those statements describe a possibility for part of a site's staff, so a closing notice by itself doesn't settle whether a move will be offered to you. If both a move and a package are offered to you, the new site, the start date and the package's terms are worth setting side by side before you choose.

State records show how much a layoff date can shift after the first notice. Massachusetts' later updates to the Wilmington notice moved the start of its layoff window from January 6 to April 24, as our WARN filing tracker shows, and Illinois logged revisions to the Skokie schedule into May 2025. In both states the later entries are where those changes showed up, so if you have a separation date from an early notice, the state's newer listings are the place to see whether it moved. Unemployment claims in the states where these notices were filed are covered on our pages for Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina and Illinois.

A sourced history of Charles River Laboratories layoffs

• February 2026, Hanover, Maryland cell therapy site closing

  Charles River set out to close its Hanover cell therapy plant, affecting 20 employees, and said client work would shift to other sites by 2026's second quarter and certain staff would have opportunities to move to other Charles River positions, a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech.

• November 2025, Wilmington research-model production relocation

  Charles River decided to move research-model production from Wilmington, Massachusetts to other U.S. sites by mid-2026, laying off about 70 people, under 5% of the site's staff, a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech, adding that some might move to other positions.

• January 2025, Durham pathology site closing

  Charles River gave North Carolina notice in January that it would close its Durham pathology site, one of three it bought from Pathology Associates in 2001, listing 37 jobs; certain employees might move to other positions, a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech.

• January 2025, Frederick, Maryland site closing notices

  Charles River filed plant closure notices on January 29 and April 2 for its Frederick site, which Maryland's 2025 WARN log calls the "Maryland PAI site," covering 7 and 13 jobs, both effective March 28, after two 2024 notices at the same address.

• November 2024, Skokie, Illinois site closing

  Charles River told Illinois it would close its site at 8025 Lamon Avenue in Skokie, with 94 permanent layoffs in January and March 2025; a February supplemental added one more, and revisions moved the last to May 30.

• September 2024, company-wide cut of about 3%

  Charles River said it was laying off 3% of its workforce across the company after second-quarter revenue fell 3.2%, a spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech, which put the cut at about 642 of some 21,400 workers.

• July 2023, South San Francisco site closing

  Charles River gave California notice on July 19 that it would close its site at 225 Gateway Boulevard in South San Francisco, with 55 permanent layoffs effective September 19.

• March 2019, San Diego research-model site closing

  Charles River decided to close its San Diego research-model production facility and move the work to its Hollister site, a cut of 24 jobs, and told Fierce Biotech it would support employees seeking jobs inside and outside the company.

• February 2009, company-wide headcount cut of about 3%

  After fourth-quarter 2008 sales fell 2.1%, Charles River announced in a February 9 results release a headcount cut of about 3% company-wide, mostly in preclinical services, with a one-time charge of about $9.0 million.

What to do if you're laid off from Charles River Laboratories

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Charles River Laboratories's biggest hubs: Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Charles River Laboratories's hub states run: Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.