More than a year after cutting about 30 percent of its workforce, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is rehiring more slowly than the other major US health agencies, according to an analysis by AFGE Local 2883, the union representing current and former CDC employees, first reported by ABC News. The CDC posted 147 job announcements from January 2 through September 10, 2026 and made 95 new hires from January to July, equal to 16.5 percent of the employees lost to reductions in force.
The comparison across the Department of Health and Human Services is stark. On the same measure the NIH has rehired 34 percent of its losses, the FDA 39 percent, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 131.7 percent, more than replacing what it lost. The union counts roughly 50 CDC programmes that Congress has fully funded but that have little staff to do the work.
The Department of Health and Human Services responded that the CDC continues to deliver on its critical public health responsibilities while strategically hiring and aligning its workforce with the agency’s priorities.
For the life sciences sector the number that matters most in the set is the FDA’s 39 percent. Reviewer and inspector capacity sets the practical speed of the US approval system, and a workforce rebuilt to well under half its prior size, with more junior staff, is the background condition behind every PDUFA calendar this site tracks. This story is graded C because the hiring figures rest on a single union analysis reported through one news origin.