More scientists will get jobs this year, says survey

The UK science labour market has been resilient to the economic downturn, with more skilled scientists being recruited and a significant increase in requirements predicted for contract staff during the next 12 months, a survey has revealed.

The UK science labour market has been resilient to the economic downturn, with more skilled scientists being recruited and a significant increase in requirements predicted for contract staff during the next 12 months, a survey of more than 500 scientific organisations has revealed.

SRG's 2009-2010 UK Science Labour Trends Survey questioned organisations in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare, oil, petrochemical and food industries.

The survey had 554 respondents, who revealed that biotechnology was second to oil/gas/petrochemicals in employing the most permanent staff in 2009 compared with 2008. Biotechnology is also now near the top in terms of the number of permanent staff it plans to hire across all regions in the UK.

This positive trend continues for contract scientific staff, although the levels of recruitment here are expected to remain stable rather than increase during 2010.

Regionally, the South West and Wales are finding it easiest to recruit permanent scientific staff, while Scotland is struggling. Wales is the one region in which significantly more companies are using fewer staff than a year ago.

The Midlands has seen the biggest downward trend in the use of temporary scientists year on year.

Ena Vieira, biotechnology industry specialist for UK scientific personnel recruitment agency SRG said: "With the unstable economic situation over the last 12 months, biotech companies have become even more focused on the commercial returns of their products. This has led to a trend emerging, showing that they are now seeking to recruit more commercially focused staff while still requiring them to have suitable scientific skills."

She added: "The results of our latest survey clearly show that the outlook for 2010 is looking positive as, from all the sectors surveyed, biotechnology is predicting the second-highest increased permanent staff recruitment during 2010."




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