CBRE Report Identifies Minneapolis/St. Paul as Top 20 Market Across Three Subsectors of Life Sciences Industry

CBRE’s annual U.S. Life Sciences Talent Trends report newly analyzes life sciences employment by subsector, mapping out the top markets and employment trends across the research & development, manufacturing and medical technology fields, with Minneapolis/St. Paul ranking in the top 20 in all three subsectors.

In the medtech subsector, which includes designing and producing medical devices, Minneapolis/St. Paul ranked second among all 100 markets with more than 38,000 medtech specialists, just behind Los Angeles/Orange County’s nearly 57,000. Together, they account for 37% of the medtech labor pool among the 100 markets in CBRE’s analysis. Minneapolis/St. Paul also led all markets in talent density with over 1% of all occupations in all fields in medtech, double the next major market.

Additionally, Minneapolis/St. Paul ranked 12th in R&D, which focuses on the number of “core” R&D occupations, including biochemists, biophysicists, bioengineers, biomedical engineers, biological scientists and biological technicians, totaling 2,700 employees across all occupations in 2023. In manufacturing, Minneapolis/St. Paul ranked 19th, making it one of only 16 markets to rank in the top 25 in all three industry segments.

“While hiring in the life sciences market has noticeably slowed over the last two years, the industry remains resilient in Minneapolis/St. Paul and across the U.S. with its lower than average unemployment rate compared to other industries,” said Mike Bowen, CBRE Senior Vice President in Minneapolis. “The Minneapolis/St. Paul market also continues to be a powerhouse in the medtech subsector, outperforming several noticeably larger life science markets, including Boston/Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.”

Nationally

Seven markets ranked within the top 10 of all three subsectors: Boston/Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York/New Jersey, LA/Orange County, San Diego, Philadelphia and Chicago. Of those, Boston/Cambridge notched the highest average ranking across the three subsectors.

CBRE also expanded its third-annual analysis to 100 U.S. markets from 74 in last year’s report, thus including up-and-coming markets such as Madison, Wis., and Trenton, N.J.

Overall, U.S. life sciences job growth has been sluggish since interest rates began rising in 2022. The industry’s job growth – specifically in biotechnology R&D and pharmaceutical/medicine manufacturing – amounted to 0.2% since June 2022 after gaining 15.8% in the same period prior to June 2022.

Even so, demand for life sciences talent is strong. Unemployment in the sector is below 2%, compared to roughly 4% for all professions. That’s despite an increase in U.S. biological and biomedical science graduates over the past decade, up 54% from the 2010-2011 academic year to 173,825 in 2021-2022.

CBRE evaluated the largest 100 U.S. life sciences labor markets against multiple criteria for each of the three specialties. For the R&D subsector, that included the number and concentration of life sciences researchers; number of new graduates, and specifically with doctorate degrees in that field; concentration of all doctorate degree holders; and concentration of jobs in the broader professional, scientific, and technical services professions.

For the manufacturing and medtech sectors, the analysis covered the number and concentration of key professions in the markets.

Top US Markets Across Three Main Life Sciences Subsectors

Research & Development

Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego are the traditional stalwarts in R&D. Washington, D.C., and the New York/New Jersey area also rank highly.

Boston tallies the most bioengineers and biomedical engineers, biochemists, biophysicists, microbiologists, medical scientists and biological technicians of any U.S. market. Meanwhile, New York/New Jersey generates more life sciences graduates than any market.

Manufacturing

The life sciences manufacturing subsector, which includes drug manufacturing as well as cell and gene therapy, has New York/New Jersey, Houston and Philadelphia among its largest markets. Life sciences manufacturing favors markets with large, established bases of manufacturing and distribution labor, such as Houston with its chemical and oil & gas sectors.

Medtech

As previously mentioned, Los Angeles/Orange County’s nearly 57,000 medtech specialists and Minneapolis/St. Paul’s 38,000-plus led all other markets in the medtech subsector. Leading medtech markets tend to be anchored by big companies.

To read the full report, click here.