All across the country as we enter the Labor Day Holiday, most of the US is experiencing a heat wave. The same came be said about the Life Science job market right now; despite the continued wave of mergers and acquisitions, the employment picture for the life science sector remains red hot.
Consider these facts: First, the recent August 2015 jobs report from the Department of Labor states that unemployment now hovers at 5.1 percent — the lowest amount recorded in the past seven years. This figure indicates a tightening labor market for both degreed and non-degreed candidates. Given the fact that most life science positions require a degree, and the most economists consider 5% full employment, with a 5.1% overall unemployment rate we can safely surmise that the US is already at and likely well below full employment in the sector. Second, venture capital flows, the growth engine of the life sciences, rose to an all time high in Q2 to $2.1 Billion dollars and $3.8 Billion in the first half of the year according the National Venture Capital Association. With all that free flowing money funding new companies and technologies, jobs are bound to increase.
What does this all mean for your company? With a very tight labor market and more demand for life science professionals stimulated by record venture capital spending, there are simply more jobs than there are candidates to fill them right now. To combat this in the short term, creating a more efficient hiring process can allow you to make offers to the candidates that you want to before the competition. A more long term approach would be to make your organization’s environment one to be emulated as of one of the best places to work in your geography. That takes time, but it will pay dividends: your organization will be the company that everyone wants to work for which will allow you to attain and retain top talent thus thriving in a candidate-driven marketplace that shows no signs of slowing down.