Even during a period of reimagined workforce brought on by AI, specialized talent remains critical to medtech innovation. Technology as a substitute for human ingenuity has yet to be realized, so for now, it has created a surging demand for talent essential to advancing automation. This is a challenge all medical device makers are facing as they compete for the same in-demand skills that other sectors are also seeking.

However, there is good news for employers worried about competition for competition: demand for the most sought-after skills has tempered. In fact, according to Randstad Enterprise’s 2025 Global In-demand Skills Report, employers have pulled back on recruiting workers in nine white-collar and four blue-collar job families this year.¹ This is helping to ease talent scarcity and allowing companies to address the persistent skills gap that has been a concern for business leaders.

Our research involved normalizing and analyzing millions of job postings and talent profiles from representative sources across 24 global markets. Besides collecting data on in-demand learned skills, we also examined CVs and roles that mentioned 15 inherent skills. Furthermore, we assessed how AI is impacting the supply and demand for these inherent skills.

In key categories such as AI and automation, cloud computing, data science and analytics, and others, companies are now seeing lower job vacancy rates (JVR), which represents the percentage of unfilled positions in the labor market for various roles. As JVRs fall, employers can attract and fill roles more quickly, leading to improved business performance. Indeed, JVRs for several job clusters have dropped by double digits year-over-year due to macroeconomic factors and an increasing pool of skilled workers

These trends are occurring in most markets, which is good news for OEMs everywhere who have struggled to fill key roles. For instance, U.S. demand for junior talent has fallen by close to a third—a trend mirrored in many other markets. At the same time, the supply of workers who possess AI, data science, engineering, and software project management and other expertise has grown, shrinking the skills gap considerably.

Employers Still Face Difficulties

At first glance, recent declines in JVRs seem like welcome developments for the medtech sector. With the industry accelerating the development of data-rich products—more than 1,200 AI-enabled devices have been approved by the FDA²—this year’s reduction of bottlenecks in the candidate pipeline is indeed good news for organizations now hiring. A closer look, however, reveals that the most sought-after talent remains challenging to acquire and retain. These are medtech professionals with significant work experience and knowledge—mid-career and senior workers who have deep insights into technology, regulatory affairs, and manufacturing.

For instance, roles requiring data science and analytics expertise are among the most challenging to hire, with a JVR of 8.4%. However, hiring for these roles becomes exponentially harder when senior-level talent is required, as the JVR rises to 16.9%. In every skill cluster tracked in this year’s Global In-demand Skills research, acquiring talent with over 10 years of experience in the field is significantly more difficult than hiring talent with less experience.

Even if medtech companies manage to acquire these valuable workers, retaining them presents another challenge. In recent years, some OEMs have intensified their efforts to boost engagement, training, and retention as a way to close the skills gap and improve productivity. With the demand for AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity talent remaining strong, device manufacturers are competing not only with each other for these specialists but also with companies from almost all other sectors. Our data shows that 19% of those working in the AI job cluster have changed jobs, making them the most mobile workers. The second most fluid cluster is data science and analytics at 18%. Moreover, most workers in both clusters indicate they are open to new opportunities.

Scarcity in Core Skills

Our research not only assesses the challenges of acquiring talent with in-demand learned skills but also focuses on the supply and demand of inherent traits. These include natural abilities such as critical thinking, adaptability, empathy, leadership and motivation, and a dozen others. At a time when technical skills are highly valued, employers still desire a set of core skills essential for a successful hire.

What we found is that a few of these traits are still hard to come by. The JVR for roles requiring resilience is a striking 12%, which is the highest and more than six times that of jobs requiring attention to detail. In second place is creativity with a JVR of 8.7%, followed by patience and composure (8%). The data clearly shows a shift among employers in the type of talent they seek. They value candidates who can be creative, solve problems, and lead colleagues in collaborative efforts, but are finding such qualities increasingly difficult to find.

While overall demand for sought-after skills has softened this year, many device manufacturers are still facing challenges when recruiting critical talent, especially for roles requiring extensive experience. Because of this, employers can expect intense competition for workers throughout the months (if not years) ahead.

So how can they acquire and retain such valued resources? To recruit effectively, organizations need a strategic approach addressing evolving industry needs and candidate expectations. This involves specialty sourcing, market insights, and focusing on future growth in subskills categories of AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity, for instance. Building a compelling employee value proposition is essential to attraction, and creating a memorable talent experience will further win over candidates.

Retaining valuable talent requires more than just compensation; they need a sense of purpose. Medtech companies already provide their people with a powerful reason for working in the industry—saving and enhancing lives. They just need to be regularly reminded of the valuable work they perform every day. Additionally, providing enterprise-wide coaching and internal mobility programs will support and grow skilled talent, fulfill individual ambitions, and accelerate career growth.

Despite softening in the global labor market, medtech companies shouldn’t assume talent scarcity has evaporated. Even with considerable improvements in the JVR of many in-demand skills, acquiring these in explosive fields such as AI, data analytics, and cloud computing is still challenging, especially when seeking highly experienced and talented people. To ensure they have access to great people resources, device makers need to build sustainable pipelines and a great workplace that rewards workers with meaningful jobs and growing careers.

References

1. tinyurl.com/mpo251131
2. tinyurl.com/mpo251132

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Ruby van den Hoff is the managing director of EMEA-based global accounts and life sciences for Randstad Enterprise. She works with Fortune 500 companies to develop and deliver solutions that improve and drive strategic access to talent. van den Hoff has more than 15 years of experience in recruitment and workforce consulting with major global clients and has worked for more than 10 years delivering contingent and permanent solutions for major life sciences companies. The emphasis has always been on improving the quality of her clients’ talent acquisition strategies.