Pharmaceutical workers give industry mixed bill of health

Confidence that pharma will resist the recession – but redundancy concerns remain

51% of pharma workers are confident the recession will affect their industry less than others

11% think it will be completely unaffected

28% of respondentsí employers are currently looking to recruit

But 47% have put a hold on recruitment

And 32% think their employer will need to make redundancies

A full report is available at: www.emedcareers.com/healthcheck

Workers in the healthcare industry are confident it will be resistant to the recession, despite being already ravaged by long-term restructuring, a report released today reveals.

According to a poll of 1,000 candidates registered with specialist recruitment website www.emedcareers.com, one in two workers (51 per cent) are confident that pharma will be less affected by the current downturn than other industries.

A further one in 10 (11 per cent) feel that the healthcare industry will be completely unaffected by the recession, the emedcareers report ëIs the healthcare industry in need of a check-up?í finds.

As a result, morale among pharma workers appears to be high, with 51 per cent reporting that they are happy or very happy in their current role.

Separate research from market analysts IMS predicts that the global pharma industry will grow by approximately five per cent this year, with the UK seeing growth of three to four per cent. The analysts also found clear signs of expansion in areas including vaccine production, generics, innovative drug delivery devices and pharmerging markets.

Correspondingly, recruitment certainly appears to be steady within certain sectors of the industry. According to emedcareers, three out of 10 pharma employers (28 per cent) are looking to hire, with the service sector (40 per cent), medical affairs (36 per cent) and clinical research (36 per cent) most likely to be taking on more staff.

But recent years have seen deep job cuts, with more to follow, as the healthcare industry has been forced to restructure to remain profitable in the face of expiring patents and cheaper manufacturing overseas.

As a consequence, nearly half of respondentsí companies (47 per cent) have put a hold on recruitment, with freezes particularly prevalent in quality assurance (62 per cent), regulatory affairs (55 per cent) and sales (55 per cent).

In addition, one in three candidates (32 per cent) believe their employer will have to make redundancies to cope with the economic downturn. The research reveals that expectations of job losses are particularly high in quality assurance (50 per cent), manufacturing (49 per cent) and sales (44 per cent).

Greg Holt, Business Development Director for emedcareers, said: ìThere have been some big redundancy announcements in the last 12 months, which together have created an impression of an industry shedding jobs – but these havenít been directly related to the recession. Much of the recent restructuring is due to a prolonged period of change in the industry that predates the downturn.

ìAt emedcareers, we have seen many companies actively recruiting, with areas such as health economics, specialist sales roles, medical roles and clinical research all boasting robust demand for candidates.

ìChallenges remain, but green shoots of recovery are emerging and with them opportunities for quality candidates to forge rewarding careers with innovative, growing companies.î