CPL LIFE SCIENCES
Life sciences staffing
vacancies compared to 2022. Similarly, the South East as the largest region, had a significant drop in recruitment, down 45%. London weathered the storm better, but still saw vacancies drop by 34.8% year-on-year.
A LOOK BACK: 2023 OVERVIEW
In 2023, the life sciences staffing sector shifted pace globally, following bumper years of growth in 2021 and 2022. Several factors impacted the global market, including economic uncertainty, disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and the ongoing skills shortage. These all played a part in a less optimistic and more cautionary approach by investors and employers last year. United Kingdom Quantitative tightening led to a slowdown in funding for emerging biotechnology firms and delays associated with new trial approvals made it a slow year for life sciences staffing, with vacancies 51% lower than in 2021. Despite this, Cambridge maintained its position as the leading city for scientific job openings across Europe for the third consecutive year. The impact of quantitative tightening is especially apparent when looking at regional breakdowns. Cambridge, and the East of England, despite being a magnet for biotechnology and the leading point of the Golden Triangle, saw a dip of 54.6% in
Data source: Vacancy Soft
Data source: Vacancy Soft
The slow down in clinical trials being approved during the pandemic impacted recruiment in Contract Research Organisations (CROs) duing 2023. As a result, the dip in vacancies was most extreme in the CRO sector, down 55% on 2022. The Biotechnology sector also suffered a year-on- year fall in recruitment, with volumes down 47% on 2022 and 53% on 2021. Big Pharma proved to be most resilient in 2023 when compared to other life sciences sectors; although it also experienced a significant drop in vacancies, falling by 29% on 2022 figures.
Research and Development (R&D) roles took the biggest share of scientific recruitment roles last year, with 30.5% of the total. However, it is worth noting this is down from a high of 34.4% in 2022 and is one of the functions to see the sharpest decline in annual totals, falling 49.1% year on year.
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