Healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech resilient amid job market woes
By: Lisette Hilton
October 2001
Source: MedZilla.com
It's a bad time for most job seekers. A suffering
economy further wounded by the September 11 tragedy sent employment
down sharply in October 2001. The unemployment rate that month jumped
to 5.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor.
But while most industries were hard hit, three
remain strong-seemingly resilient to the goings on of the economy
and world. These are the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare
arenas, all of which are hiring at a brisk pace, according to Frank
Heasley, Ph.D., President and CEO, MedZilla, Inc., a leading Internet
recruitment and professional community.
Good for job seekers; tough for recruiters
Recruiting has slowed somewhat for Genentech,
a San Francisco-based biotechnology company with about 4,500 employees
worldwide.
David Apelzin, Genentech' s human resources
project coordinator, said that the company has about 300 open jobs
available, including scientists and research assistant/associates
and director level positions. Apelzin said that while director level
positions are always difficult to fill, bioprocess technicians, lab
technicians and quality control people are somewhat easier to recruit.
He attributes the slowdown not only to the
economy but also to the type of employee Genentech seeks. "We're
looking for very advanced qualifications. We're looking for a number
of years of experience. We're looking for the most talented people
in their fields. People that are in those types of positions are often
content where they are and it's difficult to get them to leave,"
he said.
The effects of the attacks
The September 11 attacks have caused uncertainty
among job seekers, according to Sandy Haeberle, RN, Vice President,
Healthcare division, Bernard Hodes Group, a recruitment advertising
and employee communication company. "Some organizations tell
me that folks who have accepted positions with them have changed their
minds because they've decided to stay closer to their families. At
the same time, I've heard it in reverse, where people are changing
jobs to be closer to their families."
"[After the attacks] Business went down
by a third," said Mike Jerman, senior recruiter, Southwest Jules
Consulting, an Austin, Texas-based national recruiting company. While
things are starting to get back to normal, there was a period when
people were very hesitant about traveling, he said. "The clinical
and pharmaceutical marketplace is a high travel industry. People who
are involved in clinical research usually manage a region and typically
travel 70 to 90 percent of the time. A lot of companies have scaled
back. We're also finding that people are becoming more reluctant to
getting on an airplane." The looming threat of terrorism also
is affecting people's desires to travel for interviews. Many are inquiring
about company's willingness to conduct video interviews in the preliminary
stages, according to Haeberle.
Another change: an influx of applications for
entry-level positions by people who have been laid off or displaced
because of the tragedy and economy. These include jobs in housekeeping,
food service and environmental services, Haeberle said.
Still, other than the initial shock of the
attacks and short-term slow down of activity; experts don't think
the September 11 tragedy will greatly impact recruiting and hiring
in healthcare, biotechnology or pharmaceuticals.
"I don't think there has been much of
any change in terms of company planning," Dr. Heasley said. "The
biotech, pharmaceutical and healthcare fields have continued to grow
at their usual rate of about 30 percent a year in our business."
Recruiters in the health fields might actually
benefit in the long run as nurses and other healthcare workers who
had left the workforce return. "When unemployment rises like
it is now, it means different things. It means that a lot of folks
are losing their jobs in other industries, which could send their
partners back into the workforce," Haeberle said.
Influx of recruiters
One change that has occurred as a result of
the slowing economy in the areas of healthcare, pharmaceuticals and
biotechnology is a recent influx of executive search consultants who
have moved out of high tech and into health fields. It's a tough move
for a recruiter who doesn't know the turf, Dr. Heasley said, because
there is such fierce competition.
Dr. Heasley suggests that recruiters who are
new to these areas study the fields. "Focus on finding out what
kind of people your potential clients need most. And then study what
it is those people do and have a good clear understanding of it before
approaching them," he said. "People in biotech, pharmaceuticals
and medical devices tend to be rather demanding in terms of if you
use a word and you clearly don't understand what it means, they'll
hold it against you."
Hottest of the hot to cool
According to Dr. Heasley, some of the hottest
areas in biotechnology are clinical research, regulatory affairs,
certain areas of analytical chemistry, quality control, quality assurance
and project management. The only area that he mentioned is experiencing
any slowing is information technology, as it relates to biotechnology
and pharmaceuticals. It's an area, he said, where IT people can cross
over from other industries into healthcare, so there is an abundance
of available candidates.
"We're not having any difficulty recruiting
for people in the IT area. We're not having as much difficulty with
people in marketing," Apelzin said. "For IT, we would look
for someone who really excels in the position that they're pursuing.
The pool of people is so large."
Jerman said that he finds the hot areas to
be for clinical data managers, SAS programmers, biostatisticians and
clinical research associates. While there's more of a slowdown for
project management, clinical research coordinators and clinical data
associates.
December: a slow time of the year
It's going to be a little quiet until the New
Year starts, Dr. Heasley said. Generally, December is a month when
companies tend not to be doing much in the way of hiring.
That's good news for job seekers, Dr. Heasley
said. "December is a good time for people who are thinking about
changing positions to lay their plans, get their registrations in
order and begin sending out feelers. This way, when budgets are approved
for January-February hiring, those people will be in a position to
be making contacts and setting up interviews."
