Seattle Children's lays off employees amid funding cuts
Seattle Children's Health Care System has laid off 154 employees, or roughly 1.5% of its workforce, an organization spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The institution filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the state of Washington on Wednesday noting the layoffs are scheduled to begin Nov. 15.
Sources at Children's said the cuts focus on administrative staff and front-line lab and research positions. A spokesperson for Seattle Children's, in an emailed statement to the Business Journal, said 350 open roles will also be eliminated.
"Like healthcare institutions across the country, Seattle Children’s is facing significant financial impacts due to hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipated state and federal funding cuts. As a result, we are making some difficult but necessary decisions to secure Children’s future and protect our ability to deliver compassionate care and life-saving research for the patients and families who need us," the spokesperson said.
So far in 2025, Seattle Children's has received $91 million in federal research funding, according to the National Institutes of Health. That is 24% less than the organization received for all of 2024. On its website, Children's said 60% of its research in 2024 was paid for with federal funds for projects related to childhood cancer, life expectancy for children with cystic fibrosis and unraveling the causes of Crohn's disease, among others.
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