Connexis Search Group surveyed over 18,000 laboratory scientists to determine how COVID-19 impacts them personally and professionally.
The respondents work in various departments within CLIA labs such as chemistry, hematology, blood bank, cytology, molecular, histology, and cytogenetics. 54.95% of the respondents work for a hospital lab, and the rest of the respondents work for commercial laboratories.
COVID-19 testing
56% of the respondents work for a lab that performs COVID-19 testing, and 37.8% of the respondents were involved in running those tests. Our firm has recently been placing numerous medical technologists and clinical laboratory scientists with commercial CLIA labs forming to run COVID-19. Many of the commercial labs we work with already have the appropriate equipment to run COVID-19 and hire additional technologists to handle the increased test volumes.
Good news for Lab Scientist
63.74% of the respondents said that their employers have not furloughed any employees and have not reduced their pay. 40% of the respondents earn $31 to $40 per hour, and 28.89% earn $41 to $50 per hour. 8.88% earn more than $51 per hour. Our firm sees the cost to hire molecular technologists rapidly increasing due to COVID-19 testing and the fact there was already a shortage for these scientists. The average pay increase for 2019 was 1% to 5% of the employee's base salary.
New opportunities
Last week we placed six clinical lab scientists with a privately held CLIA laboratory that was recently formed to run COVID-19. Another privately held CLIA lab in Northern California hired five clinical lab scientists from us earlier in the month. As we continue to get search assignments for lab scientists --it is evident that the demand is high and will continue. We were curious to learn how many medical technologists were considering changing jobs since their demand is so high. 48.35% of our participants are looking for new jobs. When asked the most crucial aspect of finding a new position, 31.11% indicated increased income. Job stability came in second, with 16.67% of the respondents indicating the importance of security. 52.22% of the respondents said their labs were currently fully staffed, while 47.78% said they needed additional staffing to handle the workload.
To learn more about hiring CLIA lab professionals consider reading this article.
How Employers Are the Pandemic
65.93% of the respondents said that their employer was doing an excellent job in handling the pandemic. Only 17.58% said that their current employer was not doing a good job. When asked what they could do better, 44.94% of the respondents said better communication would improve morale.
Professional respect
An overwhelming majority of respondents (80.9%) feel like laboratory scientists do not get the respect they deserve, even with all the attention COVID-19 testing has brought to the industry. There needs to be a significant effort to inform college-bound students about the profession. Too many people are getting college degrees that do not deliver the types of jobs and incomes that they expected. Becoming a laboratory scientist provides a high salary and job security; we should do a better job promoting this career path.