A workforce crisis brewing in biotech will cost companies valuable time and money unless managers wise up and change their ways. Forecasters point to looming shortages of qualified staffers for bench lab and other emerging biotech jobs caused by a one-two punch: the turnaround economy and long-held hiring prejudices that favor academic research scientists.
Poised for growth, many biotech companies are shifting focus from discovery to bringing their products to market. In turn, the job market is expected to light up. "Biotech jobs will grow by 3 million between 2000 and 2010, with double-digit increases in jobs such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, biological technicians, and scientists," assistant labor secretary Emily Stover DeRocco said recently in a speech to industry insiders. That may sound a tad optimistic, but the 200,000-strong biotech workforce has been growing 12% to 14% annually over the past four years, according to the US Department of Commerce.
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