{"schema_version": 1, "id": "racine-wi-msa/life-sciences/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 381, "label": "Racine, WI MSA", "slug": "racine-wi-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "life_sciences", "slug": "life-sciences", "label": "Life Sciences"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T04:37:51.512109+00:00", "headline": "Racine's scientific talent premium widens as broader jobs market softens.", "headline_summary": "Racine County unemployment climbed to 4.1% even as Clinical Data Manager pay hit $142,249 locally against $123,653 nationally, underscoring a split labor market for life sciences employers.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Racine County unemployment", "value": "4.1%", "context": "Up 0.4 pts YoY, 8th-highest in WI"}, {"label": "Racine wage growth", "value": "3.8%", "context": "Q1 2026, highest among major WI counties"}, {"label": "WI biohealth wage premium", "value": "$116,452", "context": "76% above WI all-industry average"}, {"label": "WI biohealth employment growth", "value": "12.9%", "context": "2021-2025, nearly 2x national 6.9% rate"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Regulatory Affairs pay is climbing locally while national demand cools.", "body": "Racine advertised pay for Regulatory Affairs Specialists rose to a $108,813 median even as the national figure declined moderately to $103,780. Divergence suggests local scarcity \u2014 plausibly tied to EUDAMED and EU AI Act compliance demands cited nationally \u2014 making this a role to benchmark against local conditions ahead of national trend lines."}, {"headline": "Clinical Data Manager pay gap signals a structural premium.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay of $142,249 sits well above the $123,653 national figure, a significant local premium in a role tied to clinical operations capacity. Combined with a national CRA bottleneck limiting experienced clinical talent, this points toward sustained competition for data and clinical infrastructure roles regardless of broader Racine employment softness."}, {"headline": "Biostatistician pay decline bucks the national pattern.", "body": "Racine advertised pay for Biostatisticians fell significantly to $91,787 against a stable $131,958 national median \u2014 an unusually wide gap for a specialized, credential-driven role. Worth investigating whether this reflects a thin local posting sample or a structural shift in how the role is being organized or outsourced locally."}, {"headline": "Manufacturing softness may expand the adjacent talent pool.", "body": "County employment fell 1.5% year-over-year with unemployment climbing to 4.1%, concentrated in general manufacturing roles outside life sciences. Life Sci employers building out bioprocess or validation functions may find process engineers and quality technicians from displaced manufacturing roles a useful adjacent pipeline, provided cross-training investment is budgeted."}], "local_conditions": "Racine County unemployment rose to 4.1% in August 2026, a 0.4 point year-over-year increase and the 8th-highest among Wisconsin's 72 counties, even as the metro posted 3.8% wage growth in Q1 2026 \u2014 the strongest among major Wisconsin counties. A manufacturing-heavy local economy with employment down 1.5% year-over-year creates a mixed backdrop for life sciences employers competing for scientific and regulatory talent against a statewide biohealth sector that grew employment 12.9% from 2021-2025, nearly double the national rate.", "implications": "Rising local unemployment alongside wage growth signals a bifurcated Racine labor market \u2014 broad slack in manufacturing and production roles coexists with acute tightness for credentialed scientific and regulatory staff, a dynamic consistent with Wisconsin's statewide biohealth wage premium of $116,452 reaching 76% above the all-industry average. Life Sci leaders weighing build-vs-outsource decisions should note that Catalent's $45 million Madison biologics expansion signals growing in-state CDMO capacity, easing reliance on out-of-state partners for overflow manufacturing work. Organizations should evaluate whether Racine-area compensation for regulatory affairs and validation engineering roles \u2014 both showing significant advertised pay gains locally \u2014 reflects scarcity premiums or lagging adjustment to national benchmarks.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Racine County unemployment continues climbing past 4.1% in the next release \u2014 sustained increases could expand the pool of technically skilled manufacturing workers available for cross-training into quality or validation functions."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Catalent's Madison expansion and broader in-state CDMO investment could shift build-vs-outsource economics for Racine-area biotech and device employers weighing in-state manufacturing partnerships against out-of-state CROs."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Track whether Racine's Regulatory Affairs and Validation Engineer pay gains persist into November postings \u2014 continued divergence from national trends would confirm a local scarcity premium beyond a one-month anomaly."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National CRA and clinical operations vacancy rates remain elevated; monitor whether Racine's Clinical Research Associate pay, already up significantly, accelerates further as regional biopharma and device employers compete for the same thin candidate pool."}], "roles": [{"role": "Research Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 89753.0, "metro_p50": 117106.8, "metro_p75": 119062.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 130339.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Clinical Research Associate", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 55000.0, "metro_p50": 88590.0, "metro_p75": 119191.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 90065.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Lab Technician", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 39534.0, "metro_p50": 47840.0, "metro_p75": 52000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 47840.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Regulatory Affairs Specialist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 86107.0, "metro_p50": 108813.0, "metro_p75": 108814.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 103779.6, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Clinical Data Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 99430.0, "metro_p50": 142248.6, "metro_p75": 154539.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 123653.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Biostatistician", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 77671.0, "metro_p50": 91787.0, "metro_p75": 124765.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 131958.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Validation Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 91500.0, "metro_p50": 109517.2, "metro_p75": 130000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106478.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "USAFacts/Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Racine County unemployment rose to 4.1% in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Racine wage growth of 3.8% in Q1 2026, highest among major WI counties"}, {"source_name": "Wisconsin biohealth industry tracking", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wisconsin biohealth average wage reached $116,452 in 2025"}, {"source_name": "Industry news reporting", "source_url": null, "statement": "Catalent announced $45 million Madison biologics expansion"}, {"source_name": "UW Madison biotech tracking", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wisconsin biohealth employment grew 12.9% from 2021-2025"}, {"source_name": "Industry labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "National CRA talent bottleneck and clinical operations vacancy rates"}], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "racine-wi-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.html", "pdf": "racine-wi-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:28:47.063511+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/racine-wi-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/racine-wi-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.pdf"}