News from Europe's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry coupled with upcoming events, and exclusive articles and interviews from industry experts. WEEKLY
Figure 4: Sources of job stress (multiple responses were allowed).
Of course being employed is only part of the story. The other part of the story is how secure people feel in their jobs—and
people don't feel very secure. While 53% of respondents report feeling insecure as compared with past years, insecurity runs
highest in the US, where 55.3% of respondents felt insecure (15% feel more secure than they did in the past). The most secure
workers live in India, where 25% of respondents feel insecure, and 37.5% feel more secure now than in years past. Half of
the respondents from Western Europe feel insecure, and 54.5% of Canadian respondents feel insecure. Men and women feel almost
equally insecure—with 54.2% of men, and 52.6% of women feeling insecure. Interestingly, more women—18.6%—report feeling more
secure than they did in the past, as opposed to only 14.2% of men.
Figure 5: Company expansion plans.
Offering the greatest security are contract manufacturers and service providers, as 52.9% of respondents who work for these
companies say their jobs are secure. Next most secure are workers in generic-drug firms, where 46.6% of respondents say their
jobs are secure, followed by traditional bio/pharmaceutical companies with 39.2% feeling secure about their jobs. Biotech
companies trail that with 38.9% of respondents reporting that their jobs are secure. Biotech companies also have the greatest
percentage of workers who feel insecure about their jobs—38.9% of respondents from biotech companies said they feel insecure,
as did 32.4% of respondents from traditional bio/pharmaceutical companies, and 27.4% of workers in contract service and manufacturing
companies. Finally, only 11.1% of workers in generic-drug companies feel insecure in their jobs.
Respondents
Of course, this year the economy continued to have profound implications for workers in the pharmaceutical industry, and 11.3%
of respondents reported losing their jobs because of it. Canadians suffered the heaviest job losses, as 18.2% of Canadian
respondents report losing their jobs, in contrast to 12.2% of US workers, and 6.7% of Western European works. Indian workers
reported 0% job losses for themselves and their colleagues due to the economy. Workers in contract service and manufacturing
providers lost the most jobs—29.8% of respondents in these companies report losses, followed by 10.1% in traditional bio/pharmaceutical
manufacturers, 7.5% in generic companies, and 3% in biotechnology.
In the name of innovation
Among respondents that remain employed, 30.1% say their workday has become longer, and 23.5% report that they've taken on
additional functions to fill in for lost coworkers.
