A new report prepared by Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization indicates that the bioscience industry “stands out in job growth,” and has been a job-creation leader between 2001 and 2010. The report attributes the industry’s strength to diversity and innovation, noting that the bioscience market spans “biomedical drugs; diagnostics and devices; agricultural products from animal health to seeds and crop protection; bio-based industrial products such as enzymes for industry chemical processes and bio-remediation, bio-fuels, and bio-plastics.”
Despite the economic recession, the U.S. bioscience industry apparently grew by 6.4 percent during the period studied, adding in excess of 96,000 jobs, in comparison to total employment for all private sector industries, where employment fell by 2.9 percent, or a loss of more than 3 million jobs. During the recession, 2007-2010, biotech job losses were just 1.4 percent, compared with 6.9 percent in the total private sector. The report also finds that bioscience jobs provide higher wages, averaging $82,697 annually in 2010, “more than $36,000 or 79 percent greater than the average paid in the overall national private sector.”
