The MedZilla Report: August 2008 Employment Outlook for Biotech/Pharma/Health
Though August saw a little backsliding in the relative numbers of layoffs in pharmaceuticals, more than 25,000 new jobs were created in health care, with about 14,000 being hospital-based positions. Employers increased their candidate searches more in August than any month so far in 2008.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) September 15, 2008 -- Though August saw a little backsliding in the relative numbers of layoffs in pharmaceuticals, more than 25,000 new jobs were created in health care, with about 14,000 being hospital-based positions. Also, there was a slight bump in biotech layoffs in August.
The positive trend of job creation in health care continued in August, according to industry website MedZilla.com, one of the leaders in health care, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical employment. "Over the past 12 months, health care has added 367,000 new jobs," said Michele Hopps, MedZilla's director of marketing. Even though a few health care systems announced pending layoffs, only one -- Cape Cod Healthcare -- planned to eliminate more than 100 jobs, and their high-water mark for the month sits at 169 individuals. However, with the tens of thousands of new jobs created in the field, even those who held positions cut for cost-reduction purposes should be able to find gainful employment at other health systems.
As for the job cuts in biotechnology, the information available suggests that difficulties in that area stem mostly from clinical trials that did not produce the expected results. Northstar Neuroscience, for example, saw their cortical stimulation therapy for stroke survivors fail a clinical trial, and a similar fate befell InnerPulse, a company working on a new defibrillator. The news was slightly better in pharmaceuticals; GlaxoSmithKline, often cited in these articles, released several chemists involved in the creation of cancer-fighting drug Tykerb, which recently received approval from the FDA. Those chemists may be out of work now, but "contributed to a successful cancer-fighting drug" can do nothing but impress future employers.
Despite continuing layoffs, it appeared as though job seekers in most states preferred to either stay where they were or move to different fields; no state saw an increase in searches by candidates of more than one percent, and some positions, including those of registered nurse and clinical research associate, stayed completely flat in jobs searched. Location-based availability also remained fairly unchanged in August, with only Massachusetts showing a noticeable swing in job openings -- 2.6 percent more in August than July. Openings created were mostly in business development and clinical research; each of those rose by more than two percent from the previous month. There was also a 2.7 percent drop in primary care positions available from July to August, but almost a one percent rise in medical and surgical openings, corresponding with the nearly-14,000 jobs created at the hospital level.
The numbers were not nearly as flat when it came to employers searching for qualified candidates. Several states showed jumps in candidate searches, especially in California (9.8 percent more), Washington D.C. (6.4 percent more), New York, and Michigan (both over 2 percent more). In August, employers in the European Union as a whole increased their candidate searches by 2.2 percent. Qualified candidates with medical, surgical, and technical were highly sought-after, and even pharmaceutical sales saw a small upward swing in searches by employers.
The disparity in candidate searches, when compared to employer searches, could directly be linked to the fact that job seekers are not searching even though companies have new jobs available each month. Additionally, though layoffs do continue in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, the trend noted last month by MedZilla.com continued into August; companies continued to search for new pharmaceutical sales representatives, indicating that the cycle of drug creation could be reaching the marketing and sales stage. Both Acadia and Eli Lilly are entering new phases of clinical trials, and they, like others, are likely planning for success. If the results are positive, new drugs will be available on the market for representatives to sell, and the pharmaceutical companies will need new sales representatives to market those drugs, especially after the waves of layoffs in that area in the past year or so.
The best prospect for new jobs, however, remains in health care, where positions continue to be created by the tens of thousands on a monthly basis. The numbers for August suggest that companies are searching for candidates but not posting new openings until previously-posted ones are filled. Therefore, the prudent candidate coming out of college and looking to enter the health care workforce should begin searching as soon as possible. "Job searches should be ongoing," Hopps said, "and for those planning to graduate soon, start your job searches now. It's never too early."
About MedZilla.com:
Established in mid-1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. The MedZilla jobs database contains about 7,500 open positions. The resume database currently contains over 285,000 resumes with 16,800 less than three months old. These resources have been characterized as the largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the web in the industries served.
Medzilla® is a Registered Trademark owned by Medzilla Inc. Copyright ©2008, MedZilla, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this text in its entirety, and if electronically, with a link to the URL www.medzilla.com. For permission to quote from or reproduce any portion of this message, please contact MedZilla, Inc. Email: press(at)medzilla.com.
###
