How Did COVID-19 Really Impact Medtech Jobs?

Despite the increased demand for medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has still been a challenging time for employees in the medical device and diagnostic industry. Respondents to MD+DI's annual salary survey shared their frustrations and uncertainties from the last year, along with reports of recovery.

Explained a medtech product design engineering manager back in March 2021: “COVID response reduced availability of potential customers and reduced available funds for non-COVID related activities. As a result, sales have been severely impacted and austerity measured have been put in place within our company.”

One medtech regulatory affairs professional detailed the challenges as: “COVID-19 and supply chain breakdown, loss of hourly manufacturing employees, greater regulatory needs due to change to MDR.”

But the turnaround could be here. “The industry is finally moving forward again,” shared a corporate manager for a medical device company in late March.

The good news is that most employees working in the medical device and diagnostic industry believe it is a good career choice, and most plan to continue working in it. As one R&D professional taking the survey shared, “It is an innovative and competitive field, in which you are ultimately working towards improving peoples’ lives in a very tangible manner. Pay and benefits are good, and the industry as a whole is very stable.”

To see how your medtech peers fared over the past year, start the slideshow for more feedback from respondents to our survey.

MD+DI's salary survey was fielded online from February 22, 2021, through March 29, 2021. For more details, please click here.