Gilead Sciences ($GILD) will have its earnings call on May 2, with experts touting the biotech company's HIV franchise of drugs (including for HIV Prophylaxis) to carry a positive fiscal quarter.
What those experts might not be considering, however, are the people behind Gilead's business, or more specifically, the number of people driving the company towards success. As the company prepares to announce its Q1 earnings, public data trends on the company's LinkedIn and careers page display conflicting patterns for growth, much like the mixed results it had over the previous four quarters.
A decline in LinkedIn headcount
Gilead Sciences experienced a slight drop in employee count on the world's most popular employment-oriented website, as 82 "employees" were all no longer listed as working with the company over night. Whether this is the result of people leaving the company, contractors having their terms expire, or fake accounts purged is unclear. However, this is still a trend to keep in mind along with overall growth.
Over the past few weeks, Gilead also had a slowdown in LinkedIn headcount growth. Coupled with the 82 account purge, this slowdown accounted for a month-over-month headcount net percentage decrease of 1%. In other words, the company is still growing by the looks of its employee numbers, but is doing so at a slower rate than before.
A near-peak in job openings
A slowdown of employee headcount on LinkedIn could all be remedied with fresh workers, and according to Gilead's job listings page, it seems the company is about to be hiring for more talent than it has in years.
As of April 25, there were 805 job openings at Gilead Sciences. That's the 8th most job openings the company has had since we started tracking it in February 2018, and the number of openings appears to be trending upwards.
In terms of who Gilead is hiring for, it is looking for Therapeutic and Therapy Specialists in near triple digits.
|
Title |
Number of Openings (April 25) |
|---|---|
|
Therapeutic Specialist |
64 |
|
Cell Therapy Specialist |
19 |
|
Senior Therapeutic Specialist |
18 |
|
Supervisor, Manufacturing |
7 |
|
Medical Scientist (Hepatitis) |
6 |
|
Case Manager |
6 |
|
Medical Scientist |
6 |
|
Administrative Coordinator |
4 |
|
Manufacturing Operator |
4 |
|
Senior Medical Scientist |
4 |
|
Sr Therapeutic Specialist |
4 |
Who are these people? As one job posting put it, these specialists are, "responsible for representing Gilead's products and services to a defined customer base, generating and growing sales and consistently achieving or exceeding sales targets within a specific geographic area." In other words, they are salespeople who market Gilead's portfolio to healthcare professionals that may find those medications useful to their patients.
As Gilead is on the heels of announcing Q1 sales, it seems that headcount is slowing, yet growing, with an emphasis on those who help Gilead make money directly. Whether these are positive or negative trends relative to actual sales are up to your interpretation, but this may be yet another clue into the company's overall health.
