Seattle, WA (Vocus/PRWEB

) July 22, 2009 -- As the second quarter came to a close last month,

companies nationwide scrambled to get somewhere close to their

bottom-line projections. With the continuing economic problems in the

United States -- which many experts now call an outright recession --

companies are still required to cut back on their biggest expense:

their employees. In June, pharmaceutical companies increased layoffs,

though most layoffs came from health care. Despite that, health care

employment increased overall by 21,000 people, which is the average for

the first two quarters of 2009.

Generally, hospital systems have continued eliminating jobs and leaving

open jobs unfilled due to loss of profits, an increase in uninsured

patient care, and a decrease in reimbursements from insurance companies

including Medicare and Medicaid. As for pharmaceutical companies, many

are scaling back their research efforts due to the heavy costs involved

in bringing a new medication from development to market. The largest

cut in June came from Oscient Pharmaceuticals in Massachusetts, as they

announced the elimination of 150 sales representatives along with 30

additional marketing and corporate positions (The Boston Globe,

6/12/09).

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