Biotechnology

Employment in this sector is dominated by a handful of giant pharmaceutical companies, like California based Genetech or New York based Pfizer, but there are still many smaller groups scattered throughout the country. 2007 estimates from the Biotech Industry Organization put numbers at over 1,400 biotech companies in the United States, 336 of them publicly traded. This industry ballooned in size around the turn of the millennium, but current estimates for agricultural and food science jobs show an average level of growth across the spectrum, even during a recession.

As food is a fairly staple commodity, employment in this sub industry is generally considered stable. In 2006, 33,000 or so people made their living as agricultural or food scientists, many of them in the private sector, but others in education, for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture or in consulting. Applied science and development knowledge in the food and chemical industries mean that all four spheres in biotech and pharmaceuticals are open to skilled workers. Research and development teams are the meat of the industry, but administrative and operational positions abound.