| Today's biotechnology industry enjoys widespread, rosy employment growth predictions reminiscent of the nascent software industry's optimistic job growth predictions. Unfortunately, the software industry's seemingly endless employment growth floundered in the wake of outsourcing and cutbacks. Will biotechnology suffer the same fate? By examining biotechnology's subsectors, this thesis explores how many biotechnology jobs Massachusetts can reasonably expect in the next ten years. Subsector analysis reveals the explosive job growth commonly predicted for biotechnology springs primarily from the biopharmaceutical subsector. This fact bodes well for Massachusetts, a state already enjoying significant dominance in the biotechnology sectors that lead to biopharmaceutical manufacturing. However, traditionally Massachusetts has had trouble attracting manufacturing facilities. The author predicts how many jobs Massachusetts can likely expect from the biopharmaceutical manufacturing boom in light of these difficulties. The author also describes successful biotechnology policies of California and North Carolina that Massachusetts should implement to yield even more jobs. |
