Johns Hopkins University Laying Off Over 2,000 Workers After Federal Funding Cut

Layoffs involve 247 domestic U.S. workers for the academic institution and 1,975 positions outside the United States in 44 countries.

A general view of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., on March 28, 2020. Rob Carr/Getty Images

Johns Hopkins University said on Thursday that it will lay off over 2,000 workers worldwide following the Trump administration’s termination of $800 million in federal funding for the institution.

The university, along with its affiliates, is the largest private employer in Maryland, contributing to more than 93,600 jobs in the fiscal year 2022, according to its previous economic impact report.

The layoffs involve 247 domestic U.S. workers for the academic institution and 1,975 positions outside the United States in 44 countries.

Johns Hopkins said the job cuts will impact its Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school, and an affiliated non-profit for international health, Jhpiego.

“This is a difficult day for our entire community,” the university said in a statement. “The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally.”

Last week, hundreds of Johns Hopkins affiliates rallied near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to oppose cuts to research funding and resulting layoffs.

The university’s publication, Hub, stated that the Trump administration’s cuts to federal research funding would threaten more than 600 ongoing clinical trials conducted by Johns Hopkins, which were previously supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The NIH is the only place that can fund science in the public interest because they don’t have shareholders,” Bloomberg professor Jack Iwashyna, who attended the rally, told Hub. Iwashyna was an NIH funding recipient to research pneumonia recovery.

Johns Hopkins University did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The developments at Johns Hopkins University come after the Trump administration canceled $400 million in grants and contracts for New York’s Columbia University due to allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. It stated on March 7 that the school holds about $5 billion in federal grant commitments, and the fund cancelation only marked “the first round of action,” with additional cancellations expected to follow.

The Trump administration is also investigating 60 American universities, including Hopkins, over anti-Semitism on campuses.

This also follows Trump’s announcement of a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid and development funding after taking office on Jan. 20, pending reviews to ensure the programs aligned with U.S. interests under his “America First” policy umbrella.

The Trump administration has suspended most USAID programs and placed its employees on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as acting USAID administrator, stated on March 10 that about 83 percent of USAID contracts, or 5,200, have been canceled.

Rubio said the canceled contracts “did not serve (and in some cases harmed) the core national interests of the United States” but added that the government would retain the remaining 1,000 contracts under USAID.

Reuters and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.