Life sciences clusters drive job growth across several metros

The life sciences and related sectors are heavily concentrated in a handful of metros—Boston, San Francisco, New York, Washington, San Diego, and Philadelphia—more so than most sectors. These six accounted for 41% of total scientific R&D employment in 2021 having generated 71% of the total US life sciences job growth from 2014 to 2019 as well as 31% of the added jobs from 2019 to 2021.

What you will learn:

• The same six are poised to reap much of the growth in life sciences employment over the next five years as investors pour money into Covid-19 treatments and research efforts.
• Likewise, a number of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms are heavily concentrated in most of the metros listed above but are also prominent in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Growth rates across most of these metros were lower than the US average, but LA and Indianapolis are forecast to grow at an above average rate going forward.
• Outside of the these large markets, a number of smaller metros have a cluster of life sciences industries that are drawn to the areas’ large universities. Most of these metros saw job growth above the US average from 2014 to 2019 but have a mixed outlook.