Chapter 2
Life Sciences R&D Talent
U.S. Life Sciences Talent Trends 2024
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Our expanded 2024 analysis of the top 100 life sciences R&D talent markets shows nuanced shifts and intriguing new entries. Boston-Cambridge was our top market for R&D talent again, widening its lead by boasting the highest number of bioengineers and biomedical engineers, biochemists, biophysicists, microbiologists, medical scientists and biological technicians in the U.S. This attests to Boston- Cambridge’s remarkable talent depth.
The second tier of top-ranked R&D talent markets include the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C.-Baltimore and New York-New Jersey. The Bay Area boasts a denser existing R&D talent pool, while the latter markets have more emerging talent, particularly new graduates in biological and biomedical sciences. Los Angeles-Orange County outpaced Raleigh-Durham and San Diego primarily due to its sheer volume of existing talent and new graduates.
This year, Madison, WI and Trenton, NJ, both new to the top 25, owe their rankings to our expanded coverage to the 100 largest markets (up from 75 last year). Both markets have highly educated workforces supported by prestigious universities, with Princeton University near Trenton and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Furthermore, they have some of the highest densities of life sciences R&D occupations in the U.S. For instance, Madison has the top concentration of microbiologists, chemists and biological technicians of the top 100 markets, while Trenton boasts the highest concentration of epidemiologists and one of the highest for chemists, biochemists and biophysicists.
Phoenix and Columbus, OH also ascended to the top 25 in 2024. They were propelled by appealing workforce attributes and the emerging talent from Arizona State University and Ohio State University.
Markets on the verge of the top 25 include Nashville, Worcester, MA, Tampa, St. Louis, Albany, NY, Richmond, Tucson, Indianapolis, and New Haven, CT. These markets exhibit various strengths, ranging from an attractive industry workforce to emerging talent from respected local universities.
Figure 8: Top 25 Ranked Markets for Life Sciences R&D Talent
A market’s ranking as a top life sciences R&D cluster heavily relies on the number of “core” life sciences R&D occupations it hosts, namely biochemists, biophysicists, bioengineers, biomedical engineers, biological scientists and biological technicians. These occupations can have a more central role in life sciences R&D compared to other occupations, like epidemiologists, which, while crucial to the ecosystem, frequently do not lead in life sciences R&D.
Figure 9 shows the U.S. markets with the most “core” R&D roles. The top tier, with significant “core” life sciences R&D talent, includes Boston-Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore. Over a third of these “core” U.S. life sciences researchers reside in these three leading markets. The importance of San Diego and Raleigh-Durham in the life sciences industry is underscored by their capacity to host a similar amount of “core” life sciences researchers as much larger markets like New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange County and Philadelphia.
Figure 9: Number of Core Life Sciences R&D Occupations by Market
Figure 10 depicts the density of “core” life sciences R&D roles, calculated as the proportion of these researchers among all occupations in the market. The data reveals clusters with notably high concentration of this coveted talent, such as Raleigh-Durham, Worcester, MA, Madison, WI, Trenton, NJ, Albany, NY and Tucson. While smaller markets like these might be overlooked due to fewer absolute talent numbers, these densities show attractive industry R&D activity within these smaller clusters.
Figure 10: Density of Core Life Sciences R&D Occupations by Market (Core Occupations as % of Total)
The number of new graduates in biological and biomedical sciences also contributes to a market’s ranking as a top life sciences R&D hub. Figure 11 highlights the markets with the most graduates in these fields, distinguishing between general biology degrees and more specialized biological and biomedical sciences degrees like biotechnology, genetics or computational biology. The top graduate-producing university in each market is shown.
Four markets strongly led in the amount of graduates, starting with the nation’s most populous, New York-New Jersey, followed by Los Angeles-Orange County, Boston-Cambridge and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore. They held a significant lead over other markets in producing biological and biomedical sciences graduates.
However, Figure 11 also shows that New York-New Jersey has a lower percentage of graduates with specialty degrees in biological and biomedical sciences than Los Angeles-Orange County, Boston-Cambridge and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore. Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Tampa also have a low share of specialty-degree graduates. In contrast, markets like Boston-Cambridge, San Diego, Denver-Boulder and Seattle offer more specialty degrees in their academic programs.
Figure 11: Number of Degrees & Certificates Awarded in 2022 Academic Year by Metro and Universities with Most Life Sciences Graduates
Four markets led in the amount of graduates, starting with the nation’s most populous, New York-New Jersey, followed by Los Angeles-Orange County, Boston-Cambridge and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore.
Although there is no evidence that specialty degrees are more valuable than a conventional biology degree, the data reveals interesting links between a higher number of specialty degrees and a thriving local life sciences industry. For example, Figure 12 shows an 86% correlation between a market’s issuance of these degrees and the total size of its life sciences R&D industry. A similarly high correlation exists between these specialty degrees and local funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Figure 12: "Specialty" Degrees in Biological & Biomedcial Sciences Granted Vs. Total Life Sciences R&D Talent
Figure 13 highlights the markets that produce the most degrees in many of these specialty programs, which underpin advancements in these areas of life sciences.
Figure 13: Top Markets with Programs Issuing Degrees in "Specialties" of Biological & Biomedical Sciences
Note: Only top 100 largest markets included.
Figure 14 depicts markets with the fastest-growing programs in producing new graduates in biological and biomedical sciences. Birmingham has seen the quickest growth in new biological and biomedical sciences graduates over the past five years, mainly through the University of Alabama at Birmingham, but still grants a relatively small number of degrees. Phoenix is another rapidly growing market, as noted in previous reports.
The highest graduate-producing markets (New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange County, Boston-Cambridge, Washington, D.C.-Baltimore) are still expanding their graduate output at a strong rate, surpassing the U.S. rate of 15.2%. In fact, all markets in the chart below exceed the U.S. growth rate, except Providence, RI and Seattle.
Figure 14: Top 25 Fastest-Growing Markets for Life Sciences Degrees (2017-2022)
Note: Bachelor's degrees and above.
The highest graduate-producing markets are still sharply growing, surpassing the U.S. rate of 15.2%.
Figure 15 compares the rate at which markets produce graduates to the size of their local life sciences R&D industry. The data indicates the number of 2022 graduates for every person working in the local life sciences industry, suggesting which markets may be undersupplied or oversupplied with new valuable labor.
Among the top 25 life sciences R&D markets, Pittsburgh is producing the most biological and biomedical sciences graduates relative to its industry size (0.6 new graduates per local life sciences R&D employee). In contrast, the San Francisco Bay Area has the lowest graduate-to-industry size ratio.
Despite valuable insights from this analysis, geographic limitations exist. For example, although the San Francisco Bay Area is possibly undersupplied with new graduates, it benefits from its proximity to Sacramento, which produces a larger number of new graduates who can easily relocate to the Bay Area. Other markets have a similar dynamic, such as Boston-Cambridge. Additionally, markets producing more graduates than the local industry can potentially absorb may be worth investigating for surplus supply.
Figure 15: Graduates in Biological & Biomedical Sciences per Local R&D Employment: Top 25 Life Sciences R&D Markets (2022)
Although there is no evidence that specialty degrees are more valuable than a conventional biology degree, the data reveals interesting links between a higher number of specialty degrees and a thriving local life sciences industry.
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