A new hiring index launched by international executive search consultancy ZRG Partners has revealed a war for talent in parts of the market for life sciences staff.

According to ZRG, the outsourcing and services sector is staging a war for talent, with 63% of the jobs in the regulatory/quality/clinical categories coming from this functional segment. This has contributed to an initial hiring index for Q2 of 2010 is 66.7. This figure will be used as the baseline for future indexes.

The index is designed to reflect the global hiring level among 30 global life science organisations, that together employ more than 1.3m people. They include major corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Astra Zeneca and GSK.

Outsourcing and services has six times more hiring than life sciences and pharmaceuticals.