The Digest of Biotech Job Trends Massachusetts 2016 Medical Device Industry Labor Market Snapshot
Executive Summary The Massachusetts medical device industry s workforce has not expanded since the beginning of 2014 and has slightly declined at an annual rate of -1.6% since 2010. This period of stagnation has closely mirrored the nationwide trend, although the workforce at the national level has grown nominally, at 0.2% annually since 2010. In the period that forms the basis of this study, 2010-2016, the number of job listings for the Massachusetts medical device industry increased significantly, albeit at a slower rate of growth than both the industry at the national level and Massachusetts as a whole. 2015 set the record for the most industry job postings in a given year with 3,152 - an increase of 47% over 2014. The industry has also experienced educational requirement deflation. In 2010, 8% of job listings required a graduate degree while 8.5% required less than an associate degree. By 2015 that had changed to 4% for graduate degrees and 13% for less than associate degrees. The rates for bachelor s and associate degrees remained unchanged during the same period of time. When compared to national industry norms, Massachusetts medical device industry is home to a staggering concentration of life sciences and management professionals. The state also had a 10% lower concentration of production jobs than the national baseline rate. These trends in employment show no signs of abating as job listing concentrations are higher for management and much lower for production occupations. The Northeast and Southeast of Massachusetts were home to 80% of the industry in 2015. Yet, the regions accounted for only 45% of all job listings. The Worcester/I-495 and Boston/Cambridge Core regions where only 9% and 2% of the industry s workforce is located had 30% and 20% of all job listings, respectively. This may be a bellwether of future job growth within those two regions, relative to other areas within the Commonwealth. 47% annual percent increase in industry job listings in MA from 2014 2015; much higher than the national increase of 34% and statewide increase of 22%. 311 net gain in Engineering and Engineering Technician jobs since 2012. 51% of employees in the industry are located in the Northeast region of the state. 26% of industry job listings in 2015 were by Boston Scientific. 73% higher concentration of Medical Device jobs in the Massachusetts economy than the national average. Only Minnesota and Indiana were higher. 2
The geographic dispersion of employees differs significantly from the biopharma industry in Massachusetts, where the industry is heavily concentrated in Boston and Cambridge, and to a lesser extent, the 128/Suburbs region. Explosive growth in job listings, coupled with sluggish growth in the industry s workforce, indicate that there is an increased need for qualified talent as the industry s occupational composition shifts gradually away from lower-skill jobs. In recent years, demand for engineering, engineering technician, and managerial occupations has increased dramatically as the industry competes against intra- and extraindustry firms for talent workers in those fields. The supply of graduates feeding into these positions has grown significantly in recent years, especially at public universities, but the growth has not been substantial enough to keep pace with industry demand. To view or download a copy of the complete 2016 MassBioEd Medical Device Job Trends Report or view other job trend reports from our Digest, visit: www.massbioed.org/job_trends MassBioEd, a charitable education non-profit organization, engages teachers, inspires students, and guides the life sciences workforce. While MassBioEd has a strong focus on providing information about industry job trends, our flagship educational program is BioTeach. We invite you to learn more about our BioTeach program, which supports Massachusetts teachers as they work to engage students through lab-centered, inquirybased learning focused in biotechnology. BioTeach provides training for 150 public high school teachers annually, impacting thousands of public high school students. BioTeach s experiential learning opportunities introduce over 600 public school science students annually to careers in the life sciences. Through BioTeach, MassBioEd also provides grants for lab supplies and equipment for in-need schools, as well as extensive mentoring for teachers. BioTeach is largely dependent on funds raised from corporate philanthropy and individual donors. Learn how you can help at www.massbioed.org. 3
About The Jobs Trends Initiative The Medical Device Industry Labor Market Snapshot is a part of MassBioEd s ongoing Jobs Trends Initiative, which also includes Briefs, Quarterly Reports, and an annual Job Trends Forecast. The Briefs present basic data and analysis on particular aspects of biopharma industry job trends. The initial 2015 Briefs are focused upon entry level position job trends in the biopharmaceutical industry. The objectives in publishing the Briefs is to provide basic information about job listings trends, skills required of candidates, prevalence of degree requirements for high trending occupations. The Annual Job Trends Forecast is intended to provide greater insight based on additional study in these areas. Quarterly Reports present the pulse of the industry s job market every three months. Acknowledgements The analysis found in the Medical Device Industry Labor Market Snapshot was conducted by Mark Bruso, Research Associate, under the direction of MassBioEd Foundation Executive Director, Peter Abair. Erica Dickinson, Product Support Manager at Burning Glass provided able assistance to the MassBioEd research team in effectively using data from Burning Glass Technologies. MassBio, the industry council serving the biopharmaceutical community of the Massachusetts region, provided support for this series and MassBioEd s ongoing job trends initiative. For more MassBioEd job trends analysis, visit MassBioEd.org. 4
General Overview 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Massachusetts Medical Device Industry, Listings & Employment, 2014-2015 16,000 15,900 15,800 15,700 15,600 15,500 15,400 15,300 3-Month Avg. Listings 3-Month Avg Employment Since the beginning of 2013, both the average number of job listings and employment within the medical device industry has been static the three-month average of employment within the state was 15,729 in January of 2013. In August of 2015 the industry headcount was 15,845. This amounts to an increase in employment of 0.7%. During the same period of time, the three-month average number of monthly listings increased at a faster pace, from 237 to 307 an increase of 30%. This increase was slower than the state as a whole during the same period of time, which stood at 32%. Annual Rate of Growth, 2010-2015 8.3% 16.4% 19.2% -1.6% 0.2% MA Medical Device Listings US Medical Device Listings MA All Industry Listings MA Medical Device Employment US Medical Device Employment 5
During the five years examined in this report, the medical device industry in the state lagged behind both the industry s national average and Massachusetts statewide growth in job listings for all industries, despite showing an impressive compound annual rate of growth (CAGR) of 8.3%. In fact, the rate of growth in online job listings at the state level was exactly half that of the industry at the national level, and only about 43% that of all industries within the state s economy since 2010. Meanwhile, as the industry grew at a 0.2% CAGR at the national level, the industry in Massachusetts contracted at a pace of about 1.6%. Thus, when benchmarked against other geographic regions and industries, the 8.3% annual increase in job listings does not indicate massive expansion, but rather reveals the relative decline in jobs during the period against that of other regions. Below are the top twenty occupations by job listings as of June 28, 2016, compared to the same period of time in 2015. Only computer systems engineers, electrical engineers, and product managers saw double-digit percentage declines; only sales reps, mechanical engineers, and software developers experience an increase of over twenty online listings. 2016 2015 Rank 2016 2015 Change Pct. 2016 YTD Rank Rank +/- Postings Postings +/- Change 1 2 +1 Sales Representative 64 38 +26 69% 2 4 +2 Mechanical Engineer 59 34 +25 72% 3 3 -- Software Developer / Engineer 57 37 +21 57% 4 6 +2 Business Development / Sales 38 34 +4 11% Manager 5 8 +3 Software QA Engineer / Tester 32 25 +7 29% 6 9 +3 Systems Analyst 32 23 +9 40% 7 14 +7 Industrial Engineer 31 18 +13 68% 8 26 +18 Production Worker 29 13 +16 118% 9 10 +1 Business / Management Analyst 28 21 +7 33% 10 18 +8 Customer Service Representative 28 17 +11 67% 11 11 -- Program Manager 27 21 +6 29% 12 22 +10 Regulatory Affairs Specialist 24 15 +9 62% 13 15 +2 Financial Analyst 22 18 +3 19% 14 1-13 Computer Systems Engineer / 21 43-22 -51% Architect 15 7-8 Electrical Engineer 19 27-8 -28% 16 5-11 Product Manager 19 34-15 -44% 17 24 +7 Office / Administrative 18 14 +4 27% Assistant 18 21 +3 Financial Manager 18 15 +2 16% 19 13-6 Human Resources / Labor 17 19-2 -8% Relations Specialist 20 25 +5 Accountant 16 13 +3 24% 6
Every May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases estimates of staffing compositions for individual industries in every state these detail the headcount of individual occupations within each industrial sector. This enables us to analyze and uncover trends in the growth and decline of occupations within the industry. Below are two tables illuminating the top and bottom ten occupations in terms of growth between May 2012 and May 2015 with at least 100 workers. In an industry comprised of approximately 15,500 workers, there were 110 occupations in all; 42 of those had over 100 workers in May 2015. Fastest Growing Occupations 2012 Pop. 2015 Pop. Growth Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other 27 105 +287% Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 53 119 +124% Financial Managers 114 210 +84% Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers 198 340 +72% Stock Clerks and Order Fillers 75 129 +71% Office Clerks, General 175 285 +63% Industrial Production Managers 183 274 +50% Computer and Information Systems Managers 80 120 +49% Sales Managers 125 184 +48% Industrial Engineering Technicians 80 114 +44% Occupations With The Largest Decline 2012 Pop. 2015 Pop. Decline Medical Appliance Technicians 440 130-70% Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products 278 130-53% Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and 270 130-52% Plastic Team Assemblers 1,558 1,009-35% Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers 398 265-33% Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants 149 105-29% Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians 181 130-28% Mechanical Engineers 358 261-27% Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks 285 230-19% First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers 497 403-19% The top fifteen most common occupations, which made up 48% of the entire industry in May of 2015, are listed on the following page. Unsurprisingly, most of these occupations are involved in some form with manufacturing processes low- and middle-skill jobs as assemblers, inspectors, or 7
technicians; paired with higher-skill jobs such as industrial and biomedical engineers. Of the top fifteen occupations, only team assemblers and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers are listed as among the list of occupations declining at the fastest rate between 2012 and 2015. Top Fifteen Occupations May 2015 2015 Pop. % of Industry Team Assemblers 1,009 7.4% Dental Laboratory Technicians 660 4.8% Industrial Engineers 608 4.5% Machinists 533 3.9% Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers 461 3.4% Biomedical Engineers 429 3.1% First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers 403 3.0% Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers 340 2.5% General and Operations Managers 336 2.5% Software Developers, Systems Software 305 2.2% Customer Service Representatives 302 2.2% Office Clerks, General 285 2.1% Architectural and Engineering Managers 278 2.0% Industrial Production Managers 274 2.0% Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers 265 1.9% Experience & Educational Requirements As stated previously, the industry experienced a general increase in job listings from 2010 until 2015, although when benchmarked against other industries and geographical areas, the growth is in fact less robust than it appears. As is the case in Massachusetts biopharma industry, the primary chunk of job listings in medical devices required candidates to hold a bachelor s degree just under 80% of listings in 2015 explicitly requested one, the highest such rate since 2010. Graduate degrees became a less prevalent requirement as time progressed; in 2014 and 2015 only 4% of job listings required that level of educational attainment a significant difference from 2010 2013, when 8.5% of all job listings required it. As the demand for graduate degree holders declined markedly, an equal and opposite rise in job listings requested a high school degree or vocational training occurred. The share of job listings required a high school degree was approximately equal to the share requiring a graduate degree for the first few years of the period. However, roughly 13% of all job postings since 2014 required only a high school degree or post-high school vocational training, whereas 4% required a graduate degree. 8
3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 Medical Device Annual Job Listings by Educational Requirements, 2010-2015 141 157 158 1,349 1268 1,339 190 1,768 80 1,473 105 2,259 500 102 134 93 86 78 146 148 205 390 68 254 360 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 High School or Vocational Training Associate Degree Bachelor's Degree Graduate Degree As alluded to previously, this shift in underlying educational requirements can be attributed, in part, to a change in the occupations required by employers in the industry. Using O-Net s Occupational Families, there were declines in the industry share of listings for Management professions (-3.6 percentage points) and Life, Science, and Social Science professions (-2.7 percentage points); two occupational groups with high concentrations of occupations that require attainment of graduate degrees. Slight increases were seen in occupational families that contain occupations that typically do not require a four-year degree, e.g. Production professions (+0.6 percentage points) and Installation, Maintenance, and Repair professions (+0.5 percentage points). The base period was 2010-2011, compared to the final two years in the sample 2014-2015. This does not explain the entirety of the shift in educational requirements, however. It is likely that job listings in 2010 2011 required a higher degree of candidates than similar positions did in 2014 2015. Medical Device Job Listings by Educational Requirements, 2010-2015 8.2% 3.7% 78.0% 79.1% 5.4% 4.7% 8.5% 12.6% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 High school or vocational training Associate's degree Bachelor's degree Graduate or professional degree 9
Distribution of Educational Requirements, Each Experience Level, 2015 5% 3% 2% 3% 4% 2% 4% 5% 4% 2% 26% High school or vocational training Associate's degree Bachelor's degree Graduate or professional degree 65% 87% 91% 90% 7% Inner Ring: Entry Level 2 nd Ring: 3-5 Years Exp. 3 rd Ring: 6-8 Years Exp. 4 th Ring: 9+ Years Exp. One of the more surprising characteristics of the industry s job listings is at the entry level (pictured above, as the innermost ring). In 2015, jobs that required two years of experience or less had significantly different educational requirements than the other levels of experience. 26% of entry level job listings required only a high school degree or post-high school vocational training, whereas at all other experience levels, those requirements comprised approximately 4% of all listings. Beyond the entry level, all additional years of experience appear to have the similar composition in their educational requirements approximately 90% require a bachelor s degree, with all other degree levels hovering between 2% - 5%. These trends held up from 2010 2014 as well. In 2015, 24% of all job listings were at the entry level, followed by 44% requiring 3 to 5 years experience, 20% requiring 6 to 8 years Entry 3 to 5 6 to 8 9+ experience, and 11% requiring over 9 Industry Level Years' Years' Years' years of experience. This is essentially the Medical Device 24% 44% 20% 11% same as the breakdown in experience Biopharma 26% 44% 17% 14% requirements seen in the biopharma Massachusetts 42% 41% 10% 7% industry in 2015. However, all industries in Massachusetts in 2015 were markedly different in their experience levels than both the medical device and biopharma industries. 42% of all job listings statewide during that time were for entry level, 41% were for candidates with 3 to 5 years experience; and a much smaller 10% and 7% of job listings were for candidates with 6 to 8 and 9-plus years of experience, respectively. 10
In all three categories, the share of job listings at the 3 to 5 year experience level was approximately equal. The big changes occurred at the entry level and higher experience levels the biopharma and medical device industries have far less of their job openings for entry level candidates than the state did as a whole. The inverse is true of higher experience levels the two industries required more years of experience than other industries did in the state. Regional Breakdown Massachusetts, like any complex economy, can be broken down into many different ways to produce informed observations. Following the same methods we used in defining the biopharma industry in prior reports, we based these six geographic areas in Massachusetts on those defined by the MassBio s Economic Development Advisory Group as distinct sub-markets of the Massachusetts life sciences supercluster. We tabulated the regional distribution of employment within the industry as of Q3 2015, the period of time with the latest available data. The employment totals were arrived at by averaging Regional Employment % of Total The West 6% Worcester/I-495 9% 128/Suburbs 3% The Northeast 51% SE/South Coast 29% Cambridge/Boston Core 2% the monthly employment in July-September 2015. Unlike the Biopharma industry, which is concentrated in Boston/Cambridge Core and its immediate suburbs, 80% of the medical device industry is located in the Northeast or SE/South Coast regions of the state. 11
Meanwhile, the regional patterns of job listings throughout 2015 diverge from the employment distribution. The Northeast region s share of listings was 28% - much less than their share of employment, while the Worcester/I-495 region saw the highest share of job listings that year at 30%, indicating the potential for an expansion of the workforce in the near future. The SE/South Coast region the second largest by employment over the course of Q3 2015, also experienced a relative dearth of listings capturing approximately half of the share that they had of employment (29% of employment vs. 15% of job listings). The Core region experienced the largest differential in relative share of listings versus employment in 2015, with nearly one-fifth of all listings coming within its borders, while it only employed 2% of the industry s workforce during the time span. Through the first five months of 2016, trends in job listings by region have largely persisted, as detailed in the table below. The only significant changes from the full-year 2015 numbers were within the Northeast and SE/South Coast regions, which gained eight- and lost six-percentage points, respectively. The continuing downward trend in job listings in the SE/South Coast region since the start of 2015, relative Regional Listings - 2016 Listings % of Total The West 24 2% Worcester/I-495 434 31% 128/Suburbs 44 3% The Northeast 498 36% SE/South Coast 131 9% Boston/Cambridge Core 258 19% TOTAL 1,389 Regional Listings - 2015 Listings % of Total The West 93 3% Worcester/I-495 929 30% 128/Suburbs 161 5% The Northeast 848 28% SE/South Coast 445 15% Boston/Cambridge Core 602 20% TOTAL 3,078 to its share of total employment, indicates that demand for workers in the region is cooling off considerably. As was the case in 2015, the Worcester/I-495 region maintained a much higher share of job listings as they did of employment. Official employment numbers have a lag time of approximately six-to-nine months, so it is difficult to gauge if this persistent concentration of listings has translated into a greater share of industry employment in the region. The occupational composition listings across the state s medical device industry vary from region to region. For 2015, we calculated the location quotients for the top ten occupations, by online job listings, for each of the six regions we have discussed up to this point. Location Quotients are a simple way to compare the concentration of occupation between different regions. They are constructed first by deriving a baseline number, in this case the share of the statewide medical device industry for each individual occupation in 2015. Derive the share of each of the six regions 12
by occupation, and then divide the percent share of each occupation of a given region in 2015 by the statewide number. The resulting number conveys the degree of concentration of job listings; i.e. the Northeast region in 2015 had a LQ of 1.2, signifying that it s 31 job listings in 2015 represent a 20% higher concentration than the statewide average for that occupation. The proceeding tables show the Location Quotients for the top ten occupations in each region. Worcester/I-495 Region - 2015 Job Postings Location Quotient Mechanical Engineer 45 1.5 Systems Analyst 34 1.9 Business / Management Analyst 32 1.7 Business Development / Sales Manager 31 1.2 Product Manager 28 1.2 Accountant 20 1.6 Marketing Manager 20 1.5 Office / Administrative Assistant 19 1.7 Financial Analyst 18 1.3 Computer Systems Engineer / Architect 18 0.8 Job Location Northeast Region - 2015 Postings Quotient Software QA Engineer / Tester 41 2.7 Computer Systems Engineer / Architect 36 1.7 Electrical Engineer 33 1.8 Mechanical Engineer 31 1.2 Software Developer / Engineer 31 1.4 Industrial Engineer 19 1.2 Production Worker 18 1.4 Program Manager 18 1.4 Business / Management Analyst 15 0.9 Quality Inspector / Technician 15 1.8 Job Location SE/South Coast Region - 2015 Postings Quotient Product Manager 26 2.6 Production Worker 19 3.0 Manufacturing Engineer 15 3.2 Logistician / Supply Chain Specialist 15 3.7 Industrial Engineer 14 1.7 Customer Service Representative 12 2.1 Mechanical Engineer 10 0.8 Engineering Manager 10 2.8 Project Manager 10 2.3 Human Resources / Labor Relations Specialist 8 1.4 13
Boston/Cambridge Core Region - 2015 Job Postings Location Quotient Sales Representative 84 3.6 Software Developer / Engineer 31 1.9 Business Development / Sales Manager 27 1.6 Electrical Engineer 18 1.3 Account Manager / Representative 17 3.5 Retail Sales Associate 13 3.5 Field Service Technician 12 3.1 Financial Analyst 11 1.2 Computer Systems Engineer / Architect 11 0.7 Product Manager 11 0.8 Due to low job listings in 2015, we chose to omit the numbers in both the West and the 128/Suburbs regions. Interesting trends emerge in the other four regions, however. The Boston/Cambridge Core with only 2% of industry employment in 2015, account for an unusually high number of salesrelated occupations; sales reps, sales managers, account reps, etc. all were about three times as highly concentrated in the region as they were statewide. The lack of a medical device presence in the area belies the sheer amount of job listings in the area. Sales professions are notoriously unmoored to manufacturing centers, which partially explains the disparity between jobs and job listings in the region. The Northeast region, home to half the industry s workforce, saw high concentrations of engineering professions in 2015. The top six most-listed occupations were all engineering-related. The SE/South Coast region, home to approximately 30% of the statewide workforce, appears to be more manufacturing-oriented, as many of their top job listings (production worker, manufacturing engineer, supply chain specialist, industrial engineer, etc.) are geared towards that function. The Worcester/I-495 region looks to be more business-oriented than the rest of the industry, listings replete with occupations like accountants, financial analysts, marketing managers, business Company Boston Scientific Smith & Nephew Becton Dickinson 2015 25.9% 10.0% 2.0% 2016 20.6% 10.5% 5.3% Change -5.3% 0.5% 3.3% analysts, etc. If these trends continue unabated in 2016 and beyond, it could mean that these regions will continue to solidify their specialty areas within the state s medical device industry. Haemonetics 7.0% 5.0% -2.0% Medtronic 5.9% 4.5% -1.4% Hill Rom 2.0% 4.1% 2.1% Thermo Fisher 5.6% 3.2% -2.4% Danaher 2.0% 3.1% 1.1% Stryker Medical 1.3% 2.9% 1.6% Hologic 2.5% 2.9% 0.4% At left, the top companies by online industry job listings are displayed by their share of total statewide industry job posts in the first five months of 2016, as well as the full year of 2015. Boston Scientific was the top lister of job openings in the industry since the start of 2015, but experienced a decline in relative 14
share since the start of this year. On the whole, employers remained relatively stable from 2015 into 2016, with the lone exception being Covidien (12.6% of listings in 2015), as they were purchased by Medtronic in January of 2015. Below are the top employers by job listings in Massachusetts six regions in 2015, including the companies share of regional listings. The West Listings Share Northeast Listings Share Covidien 58 63% Smith & Nephew 132 25% Medtronic 12 13% ZOLL Medical 80 15% L3 Communications 8 9% St. Jude Medical 55 10% Worcester/I-495 SE/South Coast Boston Scientific 661 76% Covidien 206 47% Hologic 43 5% Smith & Nephew 106 24% Owens & Minor 32 4% Medtronic 70 16% 128/Suburbs Listings Share Core Listings Share Thermo Fisher 50 49% Haemonetics 179 31% Hologic 20 19% Thermo Fisher 40 7% Covidien 10 10% Covidien 38 7% Comparison to Other Medical Device Hubs The nationwide medical device industry in 2015 employed an estimated 378,000 workers, fewer than 16,000 of which called Massachusetts home amounting to 4% of the national workforce. Over the course of 2015, job listings in the industry diverged significantly in some areas from the national norm. Massachusetts employers listed 6.5% of the online job openings nationwide a significantly higher rate than its share of the national workforce. In those postings, Massachusetts had a much higher concentration in the following O-Net Occupational Families: Management; Computer and Mathematical; Business and Financial Operations. Management, as well as Computer and Mathematical Occupational Families Listings Job Pct. of Location Massachusetts, 2015 Postings Listings Quotient Management 648 21.8% 1.28 Computer and Mathematical 523 17.6% 1.28 Business and Financial Operations 468 15.8% 1.53 Architecture and Engineering 422 14.2% 1.17 Sales and Related 212 7.2% 0.53 Office and Administrative Support 189 6.4% 0.69 Production 133 4.5% 0.67 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media 63 2.1% 1.49 Life, Physical, and Social Science 62 2.1% 1.00 Installation, Maintenance, and Repair 61 2.1% 0.53 15
occupational job listings both had a 28% higher concentration in Massachusetts than nationwide; Business and Financial Operations listings were 53% more highly concentrated. Massachusetts saw a relative paucity in job listings for the following occupational families: Sales and Related; Office and Administrative Support; and Production. Sales job openings were listed at 47% less than the national average; Office and Admin. was 31% less; Production was 33% less. Occupational Families Employment Pct. of Location Massachusetts, May 2015 Employed Quotient Production 42.3% 0.90 Management 13% 1.57 Architecture and Engineering 11.5% 1.09 Office and Administrative Support 10.1% 0.79 Transportation and Material Moving 5.7% 1.8 Business and Financial Operations 5.4% 0.95 Sales and Related 3.7% 1.20 Life, Physical, and Social Science 2.7% 3.08 Computer and Mathematical 1.9% 0.51 Industry staffing patterns, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics OES survey, estimates the composition of the labor force. At left, you can see the breakdown of occupational families within the industry in May of 2015 as a percentage of the entire industry in the Commonwealth. Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Although just a tiny sliver 1.5% 2.70 Media of job listings, Production Installation, Maintenance, and Repair 1.2% 0.50 occupations make up the Healthcare Practitioners and Technical 1.2% 1.27 lion s share of those employed in the state, with over 42% of the entire industry which was 10% less concentrated when compared to the national industry baseline in 2015. Occupations that are within this group include team assemblers, machinists, quality inspectors, etc.; i.e. positions key in the manufacture and production of final goods. Possible explanations for the disconnect between the number of online job listings and total employees within this group include employers using third-party agencies to staff these low- and medium-skill positions, employers refraining from using online job boards, and slowing demand for production workers. Life, Physical, and Social Science occupations, unsurprisingly, had the highest concentration in Massachusetts when compared with the national average an astounding 208% more life science positions in the industry than what would be expected. While not a major component of the industry, with only a 2.7% share, it is one of the three high-skill groups (Architecture and Engineering, Management) that are seen in much higher numbers in the Commonwealth. This indicates that the type of work being done in the state s industry is demonstrably different than in other states. Occupational areas with low concentrations in Massachusetts are replete with lower skill positions. In addition to the previously mentioned Production occupations, Massachusetts also saw lower employment than the national average in Office and Administrative Support and Installation, Maintenance, and Repair both of which were significantly lower than the national norm. This can 16
be seen as a reflection of both our highly-education workforce and the business profile of the medical device industry in Massachusetts. While Massachusetts produced middling growth in the industry from 2014 to 2015 a net of 13 new jobs its growth in online job listings was one of the higher rates in the sample we examined. 2014 2015 Growth Region Growth Listings Listings Quotient USA 33,945 48,157 41.9% 1.00 CA 4,420 6,809 54.1% 1.29 MN 3,044 3,966 30.3% 0.72 FL 1,389 2,646 90.5% 2.16 IN 1,094 1,448 32.4% 0.77 NY 941 1,628 73.1% 1.74 PA 1.046 1.393 33.2% 0.79 MA 2,150 3,152 46.6% 1.11 We selected six other states with known medical device hubs California, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania to provide a benchmark for industry metrics here in Massachusetts. Massachusetts experienced growth in job listings from 2014 to 2015, an increase of nearly 47%. Without context this number means little, so we compared Massachusetts and the six other states to the industry s national year-over-year growth in job listings to create growth quotients. As shown above, Massachusetts listings grew 11% faster than the national average (1.11 GQ). Florida experienced the fastest growth, at 116% (2.16 GQ) above the national average, while Minnesota had the lowest rate of growth. Coupled with stagnant growth high job listings seem to indicate that the industry in the Commonwealth experienced higher turnover than other states. Unfortunately, the observed growth in employment does not precisely match the growth or decline on job listings. Two of the fastest growing states by job listings Massachusetts and California only grew at an annual rate of 0.1% last year. Meanwhile, Indiana and Minnesota, which saw job listings grow 23% and 28% slower than the national average, were two of the three fastest growing states in the sample at 0.5% and 1.6%. As a whole, only Minnesota and New York grew at a faster rate last year than the industry did as a whole. Massachusetts grew at a 92% slower rate than the national average in 2015. Emerging states seem to be capturing most of the growth that the industry experienced in the past year, as opposed to states with more established medical device hubs in the country, which populated our sample of seven states (which on aggregate, count for approximately half of nationwide industry employment). Region 2014 2015 YoY Growth Growth Quotient USA 374,325 378,300 1.1% 1.00 Employment as a share of individual states CA 65,833 65,870 0.1% 0.05 entire workforces varied in the sample. The highest concentration of medical device MN 28,731 29,179 1.6% 1.47 employment occurred in Minnesota, which FL 23,263 23,455 0.8% 0.78 had a concentration of medical device jobs at nearly four times the nationwide average of 0.27%. In 2015, Massachusetts medical device industry accounted for 0.46% of the statewide workforce, which equates to a IN NY PA MA 18,139 17,201 16,519 15,818 18,228 17,425 16,549 15,831 0.5% 2.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.46 1.17 0.17 0.08 location quotient of 1.73, i.e. the Commonwealth had a 73% higher concentration of medical device 17
Year-Over-Year Industry Growth jobs than the nation as a whole. Out of our seven-state sample, only New York had a lower-thanaverage concentration of industry jobs in the state the sheer size of the state s economy contributes to its high place among top places for medical device employees. The chart below helps illustrate the relationship in the seven states in our sample between their year-over-year growth, their share of their own state s economy, and the number of industry employees. From 2014 2015, the annual rates of growth in employment ranged from 0.1% to 2.4%, while the share of statewide employment ranged from New York, with 0.19%, to Minnesota, with 1.05%. Those two states were outliers; Minnesota s medical device industry had a much higher share of statewide employment and rates of growth than the other states, New York experienced high year-over-year growth while accounting for a low percentage of the state s workforce. The other five state were clustered near one another. 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% State Medical Device Industry Comparisons, 2015 NY MN 1.0% FL 0.5% 0.0% PA CA MA IN -0.5% 0.0% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0% 1.2% Medical Device Share of Statewide Employment Spotlight on Supply of Engineering Graduates Integral to the success of the medical device industry is a steady supply of qualified and competent graduates in engineering and technology-related fields from institutions of higher learning in Massachusetts. The competition for these highly-skilled individuals is not limited to only medical device firms; other industries are vying for these talented graduates too, as engineering is essential in a litany of industries within the Commonwealth. The industry has increased their demand for bachelor s-level engineers significantly since 2010. Even as the industry as a whole declined in employees since 2010, there has been a net gain in the engineer headcount of over 300. Job listings requesting engineers with a minimum of a bachelor s degree increased steadily in the past six years, rising from 143 in 2010 to 311 in 2015, an increase 18
of 117%. While the increase in engineering graduates from both public and private universities between 2010 and 2014 was quite staggering in its own right, its 41% growth does not keep pace with the increasing pressures in demand from the industry, as well as other industries. Engineering and Engineering Technician Job Listings by Educ. Requirements, 2010-2015 350 300 311 250 234 237 200 150 143 186 165 100 50 0 26 3 3 9 6 14 3 4 3 8 7 11 8 7 5 9 7 10 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 High school or vocational training Associate's degree Bachelor's degree Graduate or professional degree Public universities, whose graduates are more likely to stay and work in the Commonwealth after graduation than their private university counterparts, make up a smaller share of all graduates in Massachusetts. For two-year degree programs, public institutions only accounted for 52% of all graduates; at the four-year level that rate was 24%. The growth rate of bachelor s degree graduates in engineering-related fields at Massachusetts institutions of higher education between 2010 and 2014 was 53%; the rate of growth for graduates of private institutions in the same academic fields of study was 37%. Public universities were better than their counterparts in responding to demand from industry, and in turn, grew their pool of graduates at a much higher rate since 2010. Publics averaged 402 graduates per year over the fiveyear stretch; medical device companies averaged 36 entry level job postings for engineering positions over that same time period, increasing from 27 in 2010 to 51 in 2015. 19
Public University Bachelor's Degree Graduates in Medical Device-Related Engineering Programs vs. Entry Level Engineering Listings 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 510 334 349 407 409 27 24 33 54 26 51 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Entry Level Listings Engineering Graduates Engineering Technicians, accounting for approximately 450 workers in 2015, typically require slightly lower levels of educational attainment than engineers. The industry added 30 engineering tech jobs annually between 2012 and 2015, yet public schools only graduated 82, 98, and 81 students in those programs in 2012-2014. With the exception of 2014, when all online job postings experienced a significant dip, there was a robust, upward trend in job listings for Engineers, which grew at a rate much higher than the rate at which public or private universities rolled out graduates. The potential issue is apparent higher industry demand for engineers than supply delivered by colleges and universities will undoubtedly create pressures on firms to raise salaries to attract talent as they compete with each other and other industries in courting these vital workers. 20
Appendix MassBioEd utilizes Burning Glass Labor Insight for the bulk of its real-time online job listing data. Per the description on Burning Glass website, their Labor Insight software, collects millions of online job postings [everyday] from close to 40,000 sources and applies our patented technology to mine and code detailed data from each posting describing the specific skills, education, experience, and work activities required for the job going well beyond the occupation and industry codes offered in other sources. All job listings data sourced from Burning Glass Labor Insight, unless otherwise noted. Employment numbers were derived from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), a survey of employers that covers 98 percent of all workers in the country. Staffing patterns, or the count of individual occupations by industry in the state, were found by using Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupation Employment Statistics (OES) Research Estimates. These are derived from sample surveys and thus are approximations subject to sampling error, as well as non-sampling errors by respondents filling out the surveys. 21