Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts' largest employer and healthcare system, began another round of layoffs last week, but the job cuts are nowhere to be found on the state's official WARN notification system. The health system has not disclosed how many positions were eliminated, but pediatricians at Mass Eye and Ear were among those affected, even as it confirms the reductions are already underway.
The gap is notable because Massachusetts law requires employers with 50 or more employees to notify the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development before a mass layoff or closing, with notices due at least 60 days in advance, according to the Massachusetts WARN program. The Massachusetts WARN tracker, which is operated by the Healey administration, includes layoff notices as received by the state, and the Mass General Brigham cuts appear in neither that tracker nor the state Department of Labor website. As the Boston Herald first reported, the Healey administration did not answer direct questions about why the layoffs were absent from the system.
Mass General Brigham, which employs over 80,000 people across 17 hospitals, including flagship Boston medical centers Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, told the Boston Globe about the layoffs but did not disclose the number or types of roles affected, according to Becker's Hospital Review. The system said it is accelerating its transition to a more integrated model of care, according to NBC Boston, framing the cuts as part of broader structural changes meant to improve long-term financial sustainability and coordinate care across its hospitals and care settings.
A Budget Shortfall Driving the Cuts
The financial pressure behind the layoffs is substantial. Mass General Brigham was running more than $300 million behind budget in fiscal 2026 as of an internal message sent Sept. 17, Becker's reported, citing the same account. The system had reported just $59 million in operating income, a razor-thin 0.3% margin, on $22.8 billion in fiscal 2025 operating revenue, per the same outlet.
This is not the first time Mass General Brigham has trimmed its workforce without a corresponding state notice. In early 2025, the system eliminated about 1,500 positions in two waves, primarily in nonclinical, management and administrative roles, according to Becker's reporting. Those reductions did not trigger typically required state notices because they were dispersed across multiple waves, the Boston Globe reported at the time. One disclosed detail from the latest round: general pediatric inpatient admissions at Massachusetts Eye and Ear are expected to transition to other Mass General Brigham for Children sites no later than Jan. 1, though the pediatric unit itself remains open, per Becker's.
Massachusetts' Broader Jobs Picture
The hospital layoffs land against a backdrop of sluggish private-sector job growth statewide. Massachusetts had 34,700 fewer private-sector jobs in January 2026 than in January 2020, a 1.06% decline, according to the Pioneer Institute. The state lost 11,600 private-sector jobs between January 2025 and January 2026 alone, the same analysis found, and employment in the professional, scientific and technical services sector has declined by 19,700 jobs since its August 2022 peak.
Massachusetts was one of only six states and the District of Columbia to post negative private-sector employment growth since 2020, the Pioneer Institute reported, in contrast to gains of 11.9% in Texas, 11.3% in Florida and 10.3% in North Carolina over the same stretch. There is some countervailing data: preliminary state figures show Massachusetts payroll jobs increased by 3,500 in September 2026, according to a Massachusetts state announcement.
Why the Notification Gap Matters
The absence of a WARN filing does not necessarily mean the law was broken, but it does mean the public has no official record of how many Mass General Brigham workers are losing their jobs or where. Massachusetts' WARN system is meant to give workers and communities advance warning before mass layoffs hit, with the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development updating the WARN website weekly with notices received by the state. Without a filing tied to this round of cuts, affected employees are left to learn their fate directly from the health system rather than through the state's public tracking tool.
Mass General Brigham's own accounting of its workforce has varied across outlets even as the cuts continue: NBC Boston has reported the system employs more than 80,000 workers, while CBS News has put the figure at more than 82,000 people across Massachusetts. Either way, the scale of the state's largest private employer means even modest percentage reductions can ripple through households across Greater Boston and beyond.
