Originally published by The Boston Globe on August 30, 2022.
Still, some companies say that they are having a hard time filling positions. Tellingly, MassBio’s 2022 Industry Snapshot shows that biopharma jobs grew by 13.2 percent last year, with 12,400 employees added to a total workforce of nearly 106,700. Research and development jobs grew by about 17 percent in 2021, about twice the rate as the year prior.
“It’s pretty incredible we’re still able to maintain that growth,” especially given the housing and transportation crises in the state, said Joe Boncore, MassBio’s chief executive.
The industry remains one of the most lucrative in the state. Biopharma jobs accounted for $21.5 billion in total wages for Massachusetts in 2021, with an average of wage of $201,549, up five percent from $191,345 in 2020.
But not every measure of the industry showed growth. The stock slump has dried up demand for initial public offerings, causing many private biotech startups to delay plans for going public. The dismal public financial markets have led many in the private sector to wonder if funding will stall for them as well.
So far, that isn’t happening. Although venture capital funding this year isn’t likely to match the record-smashing $13.66 billion that Massachusetts biotech firms raised in 2021, it is still outpacing the total funds raised in most other years.
“Generally, the trajectory of this industry over time is upward,” Boncore said. “We’re still in a good place, because even in pre-pandemic times, this industry was going really well. And we’re still seeing growth over pre-pandemic” levels of funding.