Government
Federal employment of scientists heads down New figures from the National Science Foundation on the ranks of technical professionals employed by the federal government aren't exactly cheering. A sampling: In 1973, overall federal employment of scientists and engineers fell by 3%, employment of chemists fell by 5%, employment of chemical engineers fell by 2%, and employment of nonprofessional scientific and technical personnel fell by 6%, with the Department of Agriculture and the Pentagon accounting for much of the employment loss. On the brighter side, women scientists and engineers in federal employ continued to improve their average salaries—a trend that began in 1966. NSF doesn't offer any reasons for the decline in federal employment of scientific and technical personnel. However, one contributing factor would seem to be greater use by federal agencies of contract R&D instead of doing the work in-house. Another would be hiring freezes along with government employee cuts ordered by the White House from time to time in attempts to curb government spending. A third factor is federal cutbacks in spending for R&D—in terms of real dollars, in particular—coupled with changing national priorities, needs, and concerns as perceived by the White House and Congress as not requiring a scientific or technological fix. In 1973 the government employed 77,216 scientists and 84,276 engineers among its 266,128 scientific and technical personnel, according to NSF. (The other 104,636 are nonprofessionals.) This compares with 79,651 scientists and 87,021 engineers among the 277,840 scientific and technical personnel so employed in 1972. The only other time that scientific and technical employment by the federal government has declined since 1954 was between 1969 and 1970, when it fell by 1%. Indeed, between 1968 and
1973 such employment by the government increased a meager 0.4% after increasing 48.9% between 1958 and 1968. Federal employment of nonprofessional scientists and engineers increased 69.1% between 1958 and 1968, but fell by 5.5% between 1968 and 1973. The Pentagon and USDA remained the largest employers of scientists and engineers in 1973, NSF says, but they also had the greatest decreases in such employment from 1972 among all the agencies. Pentagon employment of scientists and engineers decreased by 2050—166 scientists and 1884 engineers—whereas such employment by USDA decreased by 2087—1845 scientists and 242 engineers. NSF estimates that the Pentagon employed 74 fewer chemists and 11 fewer chemical engineers in 1973 than in 1972, and USDA employed 65 fewer chemists and nine fewer chemical engineers. Other federal agencies experiencing a significant decline in employment of chemists, according to NSF's preliminary estimates, include the Interior Department, down by 59; the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, down by 15; Health, Education & Welfare, down by 121; and the Environmental Protection Agency, down by 52. Scientists and engineers apparently bore much of the brunt of employment cuts among white-collar workers at several agencies. For instance, at USDA, the cut in scientists and engineers (2087) apparently accounted for most of the cut in white-collar workers (2598) in 1973. At Interior, 2622 whitecollar positions were cut, apparently including those of 2262 scientific and technical personnel (including 292 scientists and engineers, the balance consisting of nonprofessionals). Other agencies where scientists and engineers apparently bore the brunt of the cut in white-collar jobs include NASA, where 1293 white-collar jobs cuts included
Government chemical employment fell slightly in 1973 CHEMISTS
Defense Air Force Army Navy Other HEW USDA Commerce Veterans Administrationl Interior EPA AEC NASA» TVA Transportation All others TOTAL
1972
1973
2450
2376
392
369
1132
1107
794 132
776 124
1731 1192
1610 1127
362 651 653 639 107 97 84 27 384
344 634 594 587 104 82 80 30 398
8377
7966
CHEMICAL ENGINEERS 1972 1973 769~ 59 421 282 7 32 82 19
758 58 418 275 7 25 73 21
165 320 71
167 300 75
86 10 8 1562
No employees classified as chemical engineers. Source: National Science Foundation
— — 87 11 12
1529
815 scientific and technical personnel (512 scientists and engineers), and the Commerce Department, where 1038 white-collar job cuts included 744 scientific and technical personnel (431 scientists and engineers). EPA, meanwhile, increased white-collar employment by 460, but the agency cut an estimated 52 chemists and 20 chemical engineers from the payroll. Salaries of scientists and engineers in federal employ in 1973 also were examined by NSF. The average annual salary of a federal scientist or engineer was $20,900 in 1973—$20,200 for scientists and $21,600 for engineers. The average salary for the 70,800 male scientists was $20,400 vs. $17,500 for the 6400 females. Women compared least favorably with men in the physical sciences, earning only 77% as much as men. NSF says that the 500 women engineers averaged $17,700, or 82% of the $21,600 average salary that the 83,800 men engineers earned. Women scientists continued to improve their average salary status compared to men. For instance, in 1966 69.2% of women scientists and engineers held lower-paying GS 5 to GS 11 jobs (under current general schedule rates paying a beginning salary of at least $8500 to $15,481) compared to 39.3% of the men. By 1972 the percentages had changed to 61.1% of the women and 33.8% of the men, and in 1973 stood at 59.6% of the women and 32.6% of the men. However, women made only modest gains in higherpaying positions. In 1966, 0.4% of women scientists and engineers held GS 16 and higher salaried jobs (which pay, under current general schedule rates, a beginning salary of at least $34,607) vs. 2.0% of men scientists and engineers. In 1972 the percentages were 0.4% of the women and 2.1% of the men, and in 1973 0.6% of the women and 2.1% of the men.
Deepwater port bill nears enactment Legislation authorizing a federal licensing and regulatory program for the construction and operation of deepwater ports is one of the few major pieces of legislation that is within striking distance of enactment by the lameduck session of Congress convening next week. It's on President Ford's priority list of energy legislation. And shortly before the election recess, the Senate passed its version of the bill, which is slightly different from the House version passed last June. Neither chamber has yet appointed members to a conference committee to iron out differences between the two measures, but they are expected to soon. The U.S. chemical industry is interested in deepwater ports, because these facilities, located in water at least 70 feet deep and capable of handling Nov. 1 1 , 1974 C&EN
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