Labor

Strong Employment Growth Drives Construction Activity

Projected Growth in Labor Pool and Lab Inventory

^{Source: Cushman & Wakefield Research}

Strong life sciences employment growth is expected in the next five years across many markets.
The two markets with the largest construction pipelines—Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area—also expect double-digit employment growth in the next five years.
Through 2029, Boston’s life sciences talent pool is expected to grow an additional 17%. The current inventory-to-talent ratio for Boston is 402 sf per employee. The employment forecast means that over 7 msf is needed to accommodate new talent in Boston. The current pipeline of 6 msf and vacant space in the market should accommodate this growth.
The San Francisco Bay Area inventory-to-talent ratio is 404 sf per employee. To support an anticipated 11% employment growth through 2029, an additional 5 msf will be needed. This demand can be met by the current 4 msf pipeline and the vacant space in the market.

Key Takeaway: Labor growth through the next five years will remain robust, and the current construction activity should readily accommodate this demand.

Hub and Secondary Markets Have the Largest Employment Base

Life Sciences Total Employment by Market (MSA), 2024

^{Source: Lightcast}

Life sciences employment is concentrated in the top 10 markets, which account for 69% of life sciences employment.
Cushman & Wakefield defines a hub market as typically having a large employment base and significant lab and cGMP inventory. All six hub markets rank in the top 10 for employment, along with secondary markets like New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange County and Chicago.
Life sciences employment growth has been robust in all markets over the last five years. Notably, emerging markets experienced the strongest growth (29%), followed by hub markets (27%) and secondary markets (16%).
Looking forward, the employment forecast calls for growth to decelerate over the next five years but remains positive. Emerging markets are forecast to grow 10%, followed by hub markets at 9.8% and secondary markets at 4%.

Key Takeaway: Major life sciences employment hubs will continue to be drivers of life sciences and lab real estate. Watch for large secondary markets (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles-Orange County and Chicago) to also be growth spots for life sciences in the coming years.

Recalibration of the Life Sciences Labor Market Continues

US Life Sciences Job Postings Decline After Post- Pandemic Peak

^{Source: Lightcast}

Life sciences job postings increased through midyear 2024 after falling in the second half of 2023. However, posting and hiring activity lags 2022 levels.
On a 12-month basis, job postings over the last 12 months were 24% slower than the previous 12 months, as hirings outpaced job postings by 26%.
The slowdown in postings indicates that employers were more likely to fill open positions in the last 12 months than the previous two years. However, current job postings have an intensity ratio of 3-to-1, meaning each unique job is posted an average of three times. This highlights continued challenges in staffing certain positions.
The number of students earning life sciences degrees has grown 4.6% since 2019. While not all graduates will pursue careers in the sector, this growth expands the pool of skilled talent.

Key Takeaway: Slower hiring and selective layoffs may present hiring opportunities for growing companies.

Filling Some Positions Remains Challenging

Top 20 Markets – Job Postings 1H 2024

City	Total Postings	Unique Postings	Median Posting Duration
Boston-Cambridge, MA*	12,811	4,072	25 days
New York, NY	9,420	2,812	24 days
Houston, TX	8,048	2,781	23 days
San Diego, CA*	6,917	2,072	24 days
Los Angeles, CA	9,639	2,036	26 days
Suburban Maryland*	6,202	1,989	24 days
Philadelphia, PA*	9,113	1,974	23 days
Chicago, IL	6,312	1,877	25 days
Indianapolis, IN	4,318	1,599	23 days
Raleigh-Durham, NC*	4,969	1,583	23 days
Atlanta, GA	4,477	1,573	23 days
San Francisco, CA*	5,066	1,293	24 days
Dallas, TX	3,336	1,293	23 days
Minneapolis, MN	3,722	1,216	21 days
Seattle, WA	4,324	1,205	24 days
Phoenix, AZ	3,241	1,153	23 days
Austin, TX	2,853	1,085	24 days
Nashville, TN	2,563	1,078	23 days
Saint Louis, MO	2,712	1,070	25 days
San Antonio, TX	3,681	1,064	24 days

*Hub Market
^{Source: Lightcast}

Despite the decrease in hirings, finding talent to fill certain positions remains challenging in today’s labor market. In some markets, employers must post job openings up to five times to fill specific roles.
The Boston-Cambridge market had the most unique postings, meaning that companies were looking to fill over 4,000 jobs in the first half of 2024. These jobs were posted an average of three times, reflecting the difficulty in filling some of these positions.
Notably, Los Angeles had over 2,000 unique job postings, but the jobs were posted an average of five times each, more than in any other market.

Key Takeaway: Finding highly skilled talent for open positions remains challenging, even as the labor market loosens.

Employers Search for Specific Talent

Top U.S. Life Sciences Occupations

^{Source: Lightcast}

Half of the job openings were focused on two occupations: clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, and medical scientists.
There were just over 66,000 job openings for clinical lab technologist and technicians during the first half of 2024. However, each position was posted an average of three times, highlighting the difficulty of filling these roles.
Both medical scientists and natural science manager jobs also had an average intensity ratio of 3-to-1, but they also had a longer median posting duration of 24 days.
Other key trends among employers:

The top five posted job titles were laboratory technician, medical laboratory technician, medical laboratory scientist, laboratory assistant and process engineer.
The top five skills requested were biology, chemistry, medical laboratory, laboratory equipment and laboratory testing.
Three-quarters of postings requested that applicants have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Key Takeaway: Talent with skills and qualifications that fit high-demand occupations is needed to bridge the hiring gap.

Highly Educated Talent is Necessary for Most Life Sciences Occupations

Percent of Higher Education Degree Completions, 2019-2023

^{Source: Lightcast}

A high composition of higher education degrees in a market provides a significant advantage to employers seeking highly educated talent pools.
Raleigh-Durham, Philadelphia and Boston continue to boast highly educated workforces, with over 92% of degree completions in each market between 2019 to 2023 being at the bachelor’s level or higher. Among all markets, Raleigh-Durham has the highest concentration of doctorate degree completions, and suburban Maryland has the highest concentration of master's degree completions.
In terms of absolute number of degree completions, the New York MSA has the greatest number of bachelor's, master's and doctorate degree completions.

Key Takeaway: With nearly three-quarters of life sciences job postings requiring applicants with a bachelor’s degree or higher, finding talent with the right set of skills requires employers to focus on markets with highly educated talent pools.

Wage Growth Accelerated in 2023 But Lags National Growth Rate

Life Sciences Occupations: Annual Median Earnings and Growth by MSA

^{Source: Lightcast; RHS=Right Hand Side}

Annual median earnings for life sciences occupations averaged $89,200 across hub and secondary markets in 2023. While median earnings grew by 4% annually between 2019 and 2023, this rate lags behind the national average of 4.5% during the same period. However, compared to the national average median earnings of $48,300, life sciences labor is much costlier.
Earnings are highest in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the cost-of-living (COL) index is 135. Wages have grown faster than the national average, at 4.6% per year. Boston also has a high cost of labor, with annual growth of 7.6% in earnings and a COL index of 132.
Denver has the lowest median earnings of $73,500 per year, however, wages have grown faster at 5.4% annually since 2019.
Wages have shown slow growth in suburban Maryland, growing only 1.2% per year since 2019, slower than both the national average and hub and secondary markets.

Key Takeaway: The cost of labor is significantly higher in the life sciences sector, but wage growth is slower than other major employment groups.