New Brunswick, NJ, February 26, 2013 — In a letter to the editor of The Star-Ledger, the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ) responded to a PolitiFact story regarding job losses in the New Jersey pharmaceutical industry.
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The PolitiFact article about pharmaceutical jobs in New Jersey that appeared in the February 24 edition of The Star-Ledger stated that “In December 2012 New Jersey had 28,100 pharma jobs.…”
However, according to the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey’s (HINJ) latest economic impact report, 19 of 30 HINJ member companies reported employing 51,619 people in 2010. Furthermore, this number does not include employment at the hundreds of non-HINJ pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology companies in the state.
HINJ employment figures are reported by our member companies and include all job functions, whereas the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) separates job functions into distinct classifications, so you may need to look at more than one classification to get the full picture.
In fact, in its 2012 “Life Sciences Cluster Report,” Jones Lang LaSalle, using BLS statistics, reported that the Northern/Central New Jersey and New York City area employed more than 106,000 people in the life sciences.
Merger activity, changing business models and global economic forces have impacted the industry worldwide; New Jersey is no exception and has experienced its share of job losses. In spite of these challenges, New Jersey remains a strong, global leader in the life sciences.