The Pharmaceutical and Bioscience Labour Market Survey collected
data from 178 sites in the sector, employing nearly 27,500
people.
Key findings include:
- Overall the picture that emerges is of a sector that
encompasses a wide range of companies in a number of distinct
sub-sectors, from large multinational enterprises to micros with
fewer than 10 employees. The sector is growing and has a high level
of recruitment activity.
- New recruits in the last 12 months account for 11% of employees
in the sample. 39% of sites are experiencing difficulty in filling
vacancies for staff that cover a wide range of disciplines and
functions. 22% of sites are finding vacancies hard to fill due to
skills shortages in a range of both scientific and generic skills.
The level of hard-to-fill vacancies and skills shortages is roughly
five times higher than for all firms in England Source: National
Employers’ Skills Survey 2006 (LSC).
- The consequences of vacancies that are hard-to-fill are
serious. They include projects not being taken forward, the loss of
products in the pipeline and having to turn away work.
- Women are well represented in the sector, although their
proportion is smaller at senior levels. Despite a relatively young
age profile, 17% of respondents report that there are current
and/or anticipated problems filling vacancies for senior scientific
staff as they retire.
- Between them, the 178 sites within the survey report that they
spent almost £11 million on training in the last 12 months. This
level of training activity is high, and four fifths of sites had
funded training for staff in this period. Most anticipate that
their expenditure on training will increase in the next 12
months.
The full report can be downloaded below:
Labour Market Survey of the
Pharmaceutical and Bioscience Sectors 2006