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CBRE’s analysis covers the top 100 U.S. life sciences labor markets, evaluating each based on various occupational and educational data.

This was standardized to show how each metro deviated from the group’s average, with the standardized scores for each variable summed to create a final score. The scoring methodology evaluates markets on the volume and density of talent in thriving life sciences clusters.

For life sciences R&D clusters, we identified the most relevant occupations and new graduates fueling life sciences industry growth. Many data points were weighted based on their correlation to premier life sciences hubs, reflecting the most ideal elements for cluster success. The concentration of Ph.D holders and employment in professional, scientific and technical services industries also strongly correlated to cluster success.

For life sciences manufacturing clusters, we used a similar approach but only evaluated markets based on the volume and density of relevant occupations. Biological and chemical technicians were given more weight than other manufacturing occupations that were more frequently found in other industries and offered transferable skills.

Life sciences medtech clusters were also evaluated based on occupations. However, this was challenging due to the specialized skills that can be commonly found in other industries, making identifying a viable talent pool challenging. For example, industrial engineers are important to the medtech industry but are more frequently employed in other manufacturing industries like automobile manufacturing. As a result, significant effort was used to identify these medtech industry occupations and assess the possible transferability of skills from other industries.

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