Life Science Hiring Trends To Watch Out For In 2021
Life science companies are constantly on the lookout for innovation to ease people’s healthcare and well-being. And with CoVID-19 tightly gripping the world, the pressure of the life science industry has further accelerated. To survive and thrive in such struggling times, life science companies have been completely relying on their workforce including employees, interns, and students.
Here’s a list of ongoing life science hiring trends that will come in handy if you are planning to expand your life science workforce. These trends are currently impacting the overall recruitment and will continue to do so in the coming months as well.
1. Surge in Research & Development Jobs
Last year thrusted the importance of R&D to the fore. As soon as the pandemic hit the world, medical researchers became the only hope of survival. Suddenly, the importance of medical research seemed urgent and more relevant than ever.
However, you would be surprised to know that the life science R&D was in demand even before CoVID-19 became a household name. For the last many years, R&D roles have been in the top life science hiring trends. There has been an upsurge in life science R&D with an 88% increase in biotech R&D jobs between 2001 and 2018.
This fueled a 42% increase in jobs resulting in 1.7 million jobs across the broader life science industries – including manufacturing and testing laboratory jobs, as highlighted in the 2019 U.S. Life Sciences Clusters: Markets Positioned for ‘Century of Biology report.
Looking into the future, the life science workforce is further expected to grow by 16% or 12,000 jobs by 2024. AI and ML will greatly contribute to life science research. Going by Deloitte’s 2020 Life science Stats, the AI market in drug discovery is expected to reach from US$159.8 million to US$2.9 billion in 2018-25 at a CAGR of 52.9%.
Life Sciences Job
- Epidemiologists
- Biomedical Engineers
- Genetic Counselors
- Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
- Microbiologists
- Chemical Technicians
- Biochemist and Biophysicist
- Biological Technicians
- Medical Scientists
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
2. Resources Adept at Telehealth and Telemedicine Services Will Make the Cut
In the past year, telemedicine and telehealth services sprung up as a boon for the healthcare industry. At a time, when staying at home was the only rescue, telehealth services rose to the occasion and offered the much-needed risk and contact-free consultation.
Due to this, life science companies are now looking for resources that can quickly adapt to this digital model of healthcare and provide hassle-free teleconsultation to the patients.
Besides, many telehealth and telemedicine apps like MDLIVE, Lemonaid, Doctor on Demand have also hit the market who are seeking general practitioners and other healthcare professionals to prescribe online medications to the app users.
Read More: Why Life Science Employers Need to Close the Widening Skills Gap
3. Medical Device Companies Are Growing
With progress in research and technology, the medical devices market is also advancing at a steady rate. Big conglomerates like Google and Amazon are actively contributing to the digital health market with the latest tech such as Big Data, AI, and Software as a Medical Device service. Fortune Business Insights estimates that the global devices market will reach US$ 612.7bn by 2025 which was standing at US$ 425.25bn.
Some of the medical device companies that have a big market share and are constantly on the lookout for employees are,
- Medtronic
- Johnson & Johnson
- Abbott
- GE Healthcare
- Philips Healthcare
- BD
and the list of medical device jobs on the rise are,
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- Quality Control (QC)
- Manufacturing
- Field Engineering
- Research and Development (R&D) Design
- Validation
4. Diversity Hiring
Hiring a diverse workforce is a prevalent trend in every industry. And life sciences is not far behind. Researches have continuously shown that diverse companies are likely to perform 25% better than their less diverse peers.
In the last few years, life science companies have shown tremendous growth in curbing gender diversity. Companies have actively adapted a more gender-inclusive hiring strategy. However, when it comes to ethnic and racial diversity, the life sciences industry is still far behind.
Diversity hiring is a constant effort, and it is the reason it remains constant in the life science hiring trend list for the last many years. And it doesn’t seem to be taking leave any time soon.