State Needs To Produce More Skilled Graduates
Trenton, NJ, November 12, 2002 — New Jersey’s pharmaceutical and medical technology companies are growing and will add almost 15,000 new jobs by the end of this decade, according to a recent report issued by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. However, the report also cites a growing disparity between the number of new jobs and the number of qualified workers to fill them.
As a result, the report urges that a concerted effort be made to encourage more students toward math and science disciplines, so that there will be enough individuals to fill these new jobs.
The report — entitled “Looking Ahead: A Workforce Supply and Demand Analysis for New Jersey’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Technology Industry” — highlights the emerging and long-term needs of the industry. Specifically, the study concludes that workforce projections estimate that New Jersey’s pharmaceutical and medical technology industry will expand and reach 80,000 plus jobs by 2010, up from 66,000 currently.
“For years New Jersey has been laying the groundwork to move from a manufacturing economy to a high-tech economy,” said Governor James E. McGreevey. “Today, we have one of the world’s strongest pharmaceutical and biotech clusters, some of the nation’s largest telecom companies, strong universities and more than our share of ground-breaking small businesses.”
“However to make a successful transition to the information and innovation economy of this new era, we need an entirely different paradigm to guide us,” said McGreevey. “We must establish an innovation triangle of partnerships between the private sector, the research university community and the State of New Jersey.”
The Heldrich Study, commissioned by the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ), surveyed pharmaceutical and medical technology companies using data and projections, as well as structured interviews with senior human resources executives in the industry. The study also incorporated data and interviews supplied by NJ higher education institutions and high school juniors and seniors.
According to Bob Franks, former US Congressman and President of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ), “New Jersey’s pharmaceutical and medical technology industry continues to drive our state’s economy. And it’s clearly evident that we’re going to do so well into the future. It’s our belief that pharmaceuticals and medical technology form the new leadership industry in our state. And that is largely because of the talent of the workforce here.”
The study presented several key findings:
- Over the next five years, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies expect high growth in basic research, operations, and administration – nearly half of these jobs will require bachelor’s degrees, and 48 percent of job growth will fall in R&D-related fields;
- Of all the jobs requiring advanced degrees by 2007, 70 percent of these will be in science and technical fields;
- New Jersey higher education institutions will not produce enough individuals with advanced science and technical degrees to meet this growing industry demand;
- Nearly half (46 percent) of all New Jersey high school juniors and seniors have taken no math or science honors/AP courses, and more than half (56 percent) of these students say they are not very or not at all familiar with the types of jobs available in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.
“The private sector, government and higher education must work together on a common, sector-wide approach to develop solutions that address the challenges posed by this report,” says Carl Van Horn, Director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.
According to the U.S. Census, by 2008, New Jersey businesses will need to fill nearly half a million new jobs. Approximately 200,000 of these will require an associate’s degree or higher, another 64,000 will require at least some post-secondary education. Many of these higher-skilled jobs are in New Jersey’s growing pharmaceutical and medical technology industry.
And, these are good jobs. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of these pharmaceutical and medical technology jobs are business-related. Half of the new jobs created by 2007 will be research and development related. In examining hiring needs and trends among companies participating in the study, researchers arrived at a number of clear conclusions.
For one, companies expect high job growth in basic research, operations and corporate administration — many of which will require bachelor’s degrees. Science and math degrees are projected to be in the greatest demand, commanding almost half of the total job growth by 2007. The demand for business degrees will also increase, while the demand for technology degrees will remain steady. Conversely, demand for engineering degrees is expected to decrease slightly.
Second, as is the case now, jobs that require advanced degrees in math, science, technology and business are deemed “difficult to fill” by the companies themselves. To that end, the study concluded that a major workforce challenge facing the pharmaceutical and medical technology industry is filling jobs that require advanced education — especially those requiring Master’s and Ph.D.’s in science and related fields.
Senior human resource executives in the industry express concern that the scarcity of these workers will continue to be a problem — and even intensify — unless something is done now to combat the problem. Although companies are currently involved in numerous projects to encourage math and science education, it is clear, according to the report, that there are not sufficient numbers of individuals with advanced math and science degrees graduating from New Jersey’s colleges and universities.
To address this, the study is being widely promoted to the public sector, government and educational institutions to begin to address the long-term workforce needs of the industry. The industry believes that working together they can develop and enact a far-reaching workforce development strategy based on the key findings and needs of the industry.
For more information about the Institute or the Heldrich Study Report, please contact Hollie Gilroy at 732-342-8442 or by visiting the HINJ website: http://www.hinj.org/FindingsFinal.pdf