Clinical research associates/monitors outside the United States don’t appear to be very happy in their jobs. According to a new “niche” survey from HR+Survey Solutions, international employee turnover in this job category leapt to nearly 23% in 2016. That’s up some 40% compared to 2015’s 16.4%.
It’s not a much prettier picture in the U.S., however. Turnover for clinical monitoring jobs with contract research organizations (CROs) remained just above 25%, which represented a slight uptick from the previous year.
It’s important to remember that the niche survey did not assess a wide swath of the industry; it included findings from 28 public and private CROs with fewer than 500 to more than 12,000 employees.
Digging a bit more deeply into the numbers, more than 70% of international companies, and 40% domestically, are enduring turnover well above the overall U.S. professional turnover of 17.8%.
Overall average turnover at CROs (all job types) in the U.S. inched up to 21% in 2016, compared to 20.1% in 2015. Outside the U.S., the overall average turnover rate increased to 18.7% in 2016, versus 17% the prior year.
Looking at paychecks, the survey reported that salaries for professional, non-managerial, clinical research positions increased by just over 8%.
Most clinical trial professionals remain in the catbird seat. One factor: The number of registered clinical trials has soared to 256,544 as of October 12 of this year, up about 11% from 2016, and well above the 24,941 in 2005. Those numbers come from ClinicalTrials.gov.
