As of this writing, the U.S. employment outlook is still pretty bleak, with an unemployment rate hovering around 8.6 percent, according the U.S. Department of Labor. However, healthcare in general seems to be doing better than many segments, adding an average of 27,000 jobs per month last year. While it may not feel that way to out-of-work CME professionals, results from the premier Medical Meetings Employment and Compensation Survey indicate that, while not unscathed from the economic downturn, the CME community is holding its own—and looking forward to brighter days in the coming year.

Employment Outlook
While 16 percent of respondents who were queried for the October 2011 survey said their departments laid off one or more employees in the past year, and 13 percent said the number of hours some employees work had been reduced, 38 percent said they had added full-time employees, and another 26 percent added some part-timers. As for 2012, 60 percent don’t expect to see any staffing changes in their offices, while 34 percent are planning to add to their rosters this year.

Not surprisingly, the main culprit for those who reduced their CME office staffing levels was the economy, said 46 percent of respondents. Another 36 percent said changes in available commercial support also caused them to take a hit in 2011, and 21 percent blamed changes in the types of formats of CME activities being produced now. A rise in the number of virtual and online events (18 percent), along with increasing state and federal regulations affecting healthcare provider/industry interactions (16 percent), and changes in the level of financial support given to the department by the parent organization (13 percent) also were factors. Other factors cited for layoffs included “Lack of programs,” “lack of work,” “fewer jobs,” “less income,” and “lack of industry funding.”

Employer Snapshot
Twenty-five percent of the respondents work in hospitals/healthcare delivery systems; 18 percent in national/international medical or scientific societies or associations; 14 percent in publishing/medical education companies; 14 percent in schools of medicine; 5 percent regional/state/county/local medical or scientific societies or associations; with the rest in an “other” category that included pharma/device companies, clinical research organizations, government agencies, technology companies, and third-party companies. Most said their employers are accredited by at least one organization, the most common of which is the Accreditation Council for CME (56 percent), followed by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (20 percent), recognized state accreditors (19 per-
cent), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (19 percent).

While responses ran the gamut, a third of respondents said their department is responsible for up to 25 CME/CPD activities annually; more than a quarter, however, said their department handled more than 100 per year—these were most often medical schools and hospitals. Almost a quarter also said their budgets for these activities was in the $1 million to $4.9 million range, while 19 percent put their department’s budget at less than $50,000. The $1 million to $4.9 million budget range was most often found in medical schools and national/international medical or scientific societies/associations (35 percent of respondents from both these organizational types reported the budgets in this range, and 29 percent from publishing/medical education companies). Medical societies and medical schools scored the biggest budgets (15 percent of these two groups  reported budgets in 2011 of more than $5 million), while just 7 percent of those working in publishing/medical education companies reported CME budgets over $5 million. Those reporting the lowest budgets were most likely to be hospitals/healthcare delivery systems (28 percent reported budgets under $50,000, while less than 10 percent of all the other organization types fell into this range).