Unsurprising. The pay sucks, hours are long, and the largest industry to hire postdocs (Biomedical) is going through a fairly severe recession that has impacted lab developers in Boston and SF as well.
Edit: My analysis of the second order effect is wrong.
From the article - "Much of the shift can be attributed to employment numbers in the biological and biomedical sciences, which saw a 3% drop in the total number of postdocs from 2021 to 2022 and a 10% drop in the number who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It’s not clear from the recent data release what’s driving the trends. But the declines coincide with a boom in hiring at biotech companies. And data from a separate survey released by NSF last year indicated fewer U.S. Ph.D. graduates in the life sciences are pursuing postdocs than ever before, with an increasing number heading to industry"
Basically, it looks like you don't need to have a postdoc anymore to work as a researcher in the Biotech industry now.
That said, PE/VC funding has dried up in Biotech compared to a couple years ago
Paying postdocs private sector hourly salaries will probably resolve the issue, but that effort needs to come from the NSF, NIH, DHHS, and other grantmakers.
Edit: My analysis of the second order effect is wrong.
From the article - "Much of the shift can be attributed to employment numbers in the biological and biomedical sciences, which saw a 3% drop in the total number of postdocs from 2021 to 2022 and a 10% drop in the number who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It’s not clear from the recent data release what’s driving the trends. But the declines coincide with a boom in hiring at biotech companies. And data from a separate survey released by NSF last year indicated fewer U.S. Ph.D. graduates in the life sciences are pursuing postdocs than ever before, with an increasing number heading to industry"
Basically, it looks like you don't need to have a postdoc anymore to work as a researcher in the Biotech industry now.
That said, PE/VC funding has dried up in Biotech compared to a couple years ago
Paying postdocs private sector hourly salaries will probably resolve the issue, but that effort needs to come from the NSF, NIH, DHHS, and other grantmakers.