Laid off from Quest Diagnostics.

What Quest Diagnostics layoffs have meant for employees

If you worked in Quest's workforce drug-testing labs, the jobs that went were tied to one kind of test. The Georgia lab Quest set out to close in 2021 processed only urine, according to the notice Certiphi Screening relayed, and the Norristown work was urine testing too, which Quest told the Philadelphia Inquirer it wanted at a single site as more employers seek oral fluid and hair tests. A consolidation like this stings in its own way, because the work you did keeps going somewhere you aren't. If you're offered a role at the lab taking the work, it's worth asking whether you'd get priority on openings, what the relocation package covers and whether saying no still leaves you eligible for severance. Quest offered Norristown staff all three, MedTech Dive reported.

Pack Health is one acquired business Quest later closed. Quest bought the Birmingham health-coaching company in 2022, and within a year it had invested enough for Pack Health to announce 200 new positions in Jefferson County, CBS 42 reported, before deciding in 2025 to shut it down. Another Quest unit, Quest HealthConnect, sits in our tracker too, with a 2022 California filing under its own name. If you work at a business Quest acquired, it's worth asking HR which company is your legal employer and which benefit and severance plans cover it, since the Alabama notice for the Birmingham closing was filed as Quest Diagnostics/Pack Health.

Quest's annual filings describe a steadier kind of cutting than any one closing. Its Invigorate program aims for 3% in savings and productivity gains every year, partly to offset rising labor and benefit costs, the 2025 annual report says, and Quest booked between $25 million and $28 million a year for employee separations in 2023, 2024 and 2025, linked to various workforce reduction initiatives. It paid out $23 million in cash against those costs in 2025 alone. Those reports count dollars, not people. If you're offered separation pay after one of these reductions, you can ask HR to put the amount and its conditions in writing, so you know exactly what was promised and when it arrives.

Quest's April 2020 workforce action came after its overall testing volumes fell more than 40% in the last two weeks of March, the CEO's letter to colleagues said. The furloughs were for employees with little work who wanted to be home, and Quest kept their benefits running and covered their contributions while they were out. Temporary and contract workers were let go outright, and virtually all hiring and promotions were frozen. By the time Quest filed its second-quarter 10-Q, the vast majority of furloughed employees were back and almost everyone on reduced hours had full hours again. If you're told a cut is temporary, it's worth asking whether your benefits continue, who pays your share of the premiums and what a recall would look like, since those were the terms that set Quest's 2020 furloughs apart from a layoff.

If you work in one of Corewell Health's Michigan hospital labs, Quest said when it announced the joint venture with Corewell in August 2025 that those existing labs would stay open after the venture's new laboratory is built, a lab the partners expected to open in the first quarter of 2027, and the deal covers laboratory workforce support, according to MedTech Dive's August 2025 report. If you're filing for unemployment after a Quest cut, our pages for Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama and California cover how each state handles a claim.

A sourced history of Quest Diagnostics layoffs

• September 2025, Pack Health closing in Birmingham

  Quest said in a statement CBS 42 quoted that it would cease operations of Pack Health, the coaching company it bought in 2022, and that some staff were leaving that day. The Alabama notice, filed September 29, listed 98 jobs.

• July 2024, Norristown drug-testing lab closing

  Quest said it would move Norristown, Pennsylvania drug testing to Lenexa, Kansas, and a state notice listed 121 layoffs from August, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Quest offered relocation for Lenexa roles, severance for leavers and priority job application review, MedTech Dive reported.

• January 2021, Tucker, Georgia drug-testing lab closing

  Quest announced January 5 that it would close its Tucker lab near Atlanta, leaving Lenexa and Norristown to handle workforce drug testing from March 6, Certiphi Screening relayed. Georgia's WARN record lists 71 jobs at Tucker that March.

• April 2020, COVID-19 furloughs and pay cuts

  Quest put more than 4,000 employees on voluntary furloughs with benefits kept, cut exempt pay 5% to 20% for 12 weeks and suspended its 401(k) match, its CEO letter said. Its second-quarter 10-Q reported the vast majority recalled.

What to do if you're laid off from Quest Diagnostics

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Quest Diagnostics's biggest hubs: California, Pennsylvania, Alabama. 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 Quest Diagnostics's hub states run: California, Pennsylvania, Alabama, 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.