Pharma sector hiring expected to see 20 per cent growth

The maximum hiring in pharma and healthcare will be seen in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu

The pharmaceutical and healthcare sector is likely to witness an over 20 per cent growth in hiring this year and expected to generate around 1,34,000 jobs this year, says a report.

The pharma and healthcare sector is looking at an “increase of over 20 per cent in the hiring numbers compared to 2015. The sector is likely to create 1,34,000 number of jobs in this year”, according to the India Skills Report 2016 said.

Thus, hiring in India’s pharma industry is picking up and set to firm up in the next quarter, the report added.

India Skills Report 2016, a joint initiative of People Strong, Wheebox in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry, LinkedIn and Association of Indian University (AIU). The survey was done among 150 employers and 5.2 lakh students in all sectors pan-India between July and October 2015.

The pharma industry currently employs about 5.5 to 5.7 lakh people and has contributed significantly in creating a rich talent pool of researchers, scientists, doctors and project managers, the report said.

This increase can be attributed to the initiatives by the government as good investment in the pharma, life science and healthcare sectors is showing a positive sign, it pointed out.

Moreover, it said, Indian pharma industry is likely to be in the top 10 global markets in value terms by 2020.

The maximum hiring in pharma and healthcare will be seen in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu with employers preferring to hire candidates with B Pharm and M Pharm degrees, respectively, it pointed out.

The 33.6 per cent employers prefer to hire freshers and 32 per cent will prefer candidates with 5 years of work experience.

The need for skilled manpower in the pharmaceutical industry ranges widely from Research and Development, Quality Assurance (QA), Intellectual Property (IP), manufacturing to even sales and marketing.

It opined that the pharma industry needs to have better policies to retain and nurture the existing talent and equip them with necessary skills.

This sector is emerging as a popular choice amongst Gen Y, since the nature of work, primarily treating patients and research for new drug discoveries plays an integral role in meeting their key career aspirations, it said.

In the pharma and healthcare sector, 25 per cent employers still prefer to look for candidates through job portals and 18.75 per cent through HR consultants.