Nearly every Israeli biomedical company has made layoffs, as seen in job figures. A survey by high-tech job placement firm Niche Ltd., ahead of the ILSI Biomed 2009 conference, found a 30-40% drop in demand for employees in the industry in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the corresponding quarter of 2008. "Globes" is providing media coverage of the event.
A look at the biopharmaceutical subsector shows the true depth of the crisis. "For many workers in the sector, their only chance of job in their field is overseas," says Niche Biotech managing partner Lizzy Shoob-London.
However, the situation is better for good workers in the medical devices subsector. Many companies in this field thought that the recession will bring them experience, high-quality employees will to work for less than they were accustomed to. Reality proved otherwise. Shoob-London said, "The supply of people seeking work is fairly low, and most of them won't compromise on salary."
Both subsectors have positions that are hard to fill, especially at the executive level and for CEOs, even though company closings have dumped many former CEOs onto the job market.
"An experienced CEO is a rare commodity. In biotechnology, there are almost no CEOs who achieved an exit or IPO because there have been almost no such acts in Israel," says Shoob-London
Niche found that many biomedical workers who can't find jobs in the field are moving into cleantech. "This is a multidisciplinary field. There's a need for candidates from mechanics who specialize in thermodynamics, and electrical engineers. People with these skills who lost jobs in the medical devices sector can fairly easily find new jobs in cleantech, which is growing," said Lizzy.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 3, 2009
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