SAN DIEGO — Ever since Vince Kato was laid off, he has felt like he was just two to three months away from landing a new position. But more than a year later, he’s running out of options, and out of time.
Kato, who was a senior engineer at Illumina, was let go in March 2024 and since then, has applied without success for hundreds of positions at biotech startups and larger pharma firms, including roles he is overqualified for. With a monthly rent of $3,600 eating through his savings, he’s now facing hard choices.
“I’ve either got to leave San Diego, move back to Minnesota, or something. I don’t know,” Kato said. “At this point, I’m just reaching the end of my rope financially.”
His predicament is one of the starker examples of the state of San Diego’s biotech industry, which ranks third among the nation’s life science hubs, behind Boston and the Bay Area, for its concentration of employees, companies, and funding. Despite select success stories, many of the region’s companies are struggling to raise money, with the uncertainty only exacerbated by the Trump administration’s many disruptions to science. On the ground, that means lab space is plentiful, but jobs are hard to come by.
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