Scientific recruitment in UK biotechnology bucks the trend for 2010

A recent survey of over 550 scientific organizations shows a UK-wide positive outlook for 2010 recruitment, according to recruitment specialist SRG. Although the UK science labor market had a tough 2009, shedding both permanent and contract staff, the biotechnology sector has been resilient to the consumer downturn and saw an increase in the requirement for skilled scientists.

This sector also bucks the trend by predicting a significant increase in the recruitment of contract staff in the coming 12 months too. However, the majority of respondents in this sector found it much harder to recruit staff in 2009 than 2008.

From all the sectors in the survey, biotechnology were second only to Oil/Gas/Petrochemicals in hiring the most permanent staff compared to the previous year, however they are now near the top in terms of numbers of permanent staff they are planning to hire. This positive trend continues for contract scientific staff hire, although the level looks to remain stable rather than increase during 2010. This differs when the question is asked in terms of general use of contract staff across all disciplines including admin, finance etc, as this has seen a decrease throughout 2009.