Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. (MRK) has filed notice with New Jersey state officials confirming 54 additional layoffs at its Rahway location.
The filing was made in September with the New Jersey Department of Labor and marks the fourth round of cuts to hit the company’s New Jersey workforce since last summer.
The redundancies are scheduled to take effect across two phases, with staff departures planned for December 11, 2026, and January 4, 2027.
The cuts form part of a companywide restructuring initiative launched in 2025, which set a target of reducing costs by $3 billion before the end of 2027.
Since the restructuring was first unveiled in July 2025, Merck has now eliminated 350 jobs across its New Jersey operations in total.
Combined with 88 positions removed earlier this year, the company has now cut 142 New Jersey jobs in 2026 alone.
A Merck spokesperson confirmed the latest redundancies are connected to the company’s “multiyear optimization” programme, using that specific language to describe the ongoing effort.
The drugmaker issued a statement saying, “We remain committed to New Jersey, as we continue to employ more than 8,000 people in the state. We have also invested nearly $3 billion since 2018 in our New Jersey operations, which manufacture medicines and vaccines that contribute to saving and improving lives worldwide.”
When Merck first announced the cost-cutting drive, it stated that savings generated would be used to support new product launches, a commitment it reiterated in a quarterly earnings report last summer.
Keytruda, which holds 44 approved indications, accounts for around half of Merck’s total sales and contributed $31.7 billion to the company’s total 2025 revenue of $65 billion.
The announcement arrives less than a month after Merck was ranked ninth on Forbes’ America’s Best Employers by State list for New Jersey.
According to layoffalert.org, Merck has filed 19 WARN Act notices affecting a total of 6,149 employees across New Jersey and Pennsylvania between November 2003 and September 2026.
With the cost-cutting programme running through 2027, Merck has given no indication that the current round of workforce reductions will be its last.