The MedZilla Report: September 2008 Employment Outlook for Biotech/Pha...( Even with la...)

Even with layoff announcements from more than a dozen employers in health care, employment continued to increase in September, gaining 17,000 jobs overall. However, in the past month it seemed like no one was searching for those new jobs.

Seattle, WA (Vocus) October 31, 2008 -- Strong growth continues in the health care field, with an average of 30,000 jobs created each month. Even with layoff announcements from more than a dozen employers in health care, employment continued to increase in September, gaining 17,000 jobs overall.

Layoffs in health care were generally small in number with a few exceptions, most notably HealthSouth in Dallas and Massachusetts General. Meanwhile, biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms laid off fewer employees in September than in August -- only ten companies announced layoffs, and only one, Schering-Plough, planned to cut more than 100 employees. Most of the job eliminations came as a result of the overall U.S. economic situation; companies chose not to enter the credit market or had to restructure their financial situation overall and were forced to use layoffs as a way to save money. However, some pharmaceutical firms also eliminated research and development positions in an effort to narrow their foci onto new drugs with the greatest chance of success. Schering-Plough's layoffs, though, will come almost entirely from their 5,000-person sales force.
   
Despite the layoffs announced this month, companies are still in the market for new employees. Posted jobs for new medical education specialists rose by more than ten percent, followed by postings for medical and surgical candidates at 5.7 percent. Even sales representative postings rose from August to September by almost two percent. Less likely to be seen were business development and marketing postings, which fell by more than six percent over the past month.
   

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