Maybe there’s something to all that talk in recent weeks about the economy finally recovering, and then again, maybe not. Nearly half the respondents to a recent GEN poll (46.2%) said they did not expect to see jobs eliminated from their company or institution this year. However, more than half of respondents disagreed with that upbeat assessment, with more than one-third (34.6%) saying they did expect jobs to be eliminated in their workplaces in 2012, while the remaining 19.2% were not sure.

While overall unemployment numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have trended positively in recent months, there is still much uncertainty about current and future employment opportunities across a wide variety of fields including the life sciences. According to Challenger Gray & Christmas, the pharma industry cut 4,336 jobs in the first two months of 2012, 8th highest of 28 industry sectors studied and double the 2,425 jobs eliminated in January and February 2011, as several pharma giants moved to cut R&D and marketing costs to get over the patent cliff. Last month, 265 jobs were reported as being eliminated, down from 335 in February 2011.

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