While many Wisconsin industries lost jobs during a five year period, the vast field of bioscience added them according a new report from the group Bioforward. Wisconsin bioscience jobs grew three percent in 2004-to-2009 while the state overall lost three percent of its jobs that same period according to lead researcher Sammis White.
The UW-Milwaukee professor says 24,000 private sector jobs have been created in the bioscience field and the total economic impact is nearly $7 billion. The study also found the average bioscience worker’s wages is 64 percent higher than the average.
White says bioscience is found 27 different industries that generally fall under agriculture, medical equipment, pharmaceutical and research/testing categories.
The work is not limited to people in lab coats in Madison or Milwaukee either as bioscience employers exist in 53 of the state’s 72 counties and include some manual labor jobs.