Commercial real estate is still getting absolutely destroyed by Covid repercussions. I honestly don't know how things will turn around unless we get a bad recession where employers say "Hey, if you want a job, come into the office 5 days a week".
The problem is the same everywhere at the moment, no one wants to pay for good work anymore, but areas like research and wet labs which are dangerous and thankless jobs in the first place, this has the added problem of employers having been coasting on peoples passion and dedication these last few decades already, so this extra burden is simply too much for most. The dam has burst and people are simple leaving, and it would be too little to simple 'go back to how it was'. Even paying more than what was being paid at this stage would be too little, once you've started re-spec'ing, why would you stop?