LU BR IZO L
COVE R STORY
GENTLE TOUCH Ying Wang
synthesizes a viscosity modifier in Lubrizol’s chemical synthesis lab in Wickliffe, Ohio.
IT’S STILL A STRUGGLE Jobs for chemists might be SLIGHTLY EASIER to find in 2012; recruiters and entrepreneurs can help ALTHOUGH the Great Recession that be-
gan in December 2007 ended in June 2009, the economy is still fragile, and the outlook for chemical companies—and for the chemists they employ—remains uncertain. At the mid-October G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner stated that “we face a world economy still healing from the crisis of 2008 and 2009, damaged by the shocks to growth of the past year, and threatened by the ongoing crisis in Europe.” In the U.S., “economic growth slowed sharply this winter and spring, as it did around the world, as a result of the rise in oil prices and the disaster in Japan,” he noted. “Consumer and business confidence eroded further over the course of the summer, in part because of the debt limit debate in the Congress and the broader concern about political paralysis
in Washington,” he said. Europe’s own proAssistant Managing Editor Sophie L. tracted economic and financial crisis “has Rovner explores the impact of these forces added significantly to these pressures.” on chemical industry hiring plans in the Preliminary figures released by the U.S. first article in C&EN’s Employment OutCommerce Departlook feature package. ment in late October Next, Senior Editor CONTENTS indicate the economy Susan J. Ainsworth STILL WOBBLY, 34 grew 2.5% in the third describes how curThe shaky economy is suppressing quarter, up from 1.3% rent and future job demand for chemists. in the second quarter seekers can fully benand 0.4% in the first efit from recruiters’ HEADHUNTER HELP, 42 quarter. Nonetheless, services. By forging recruiter relationships, job Commerce warned In the final story seekers unlock new opportunities. that faster growth of the series, News JUMP-STARTING JOBS, 47 is needed to reduce Editor William G. Innovation, entrepreneurship can be unemployment. Schulz examines used to spark job growth, panel says. Despite the genan action-oriented eral weakness of the report produced by a economy, U.S. chemical companies conblue-ribbon American Chemical Society tinue to beat last year’s sales and earnings panel that is meant to inspire innovation results. However, sales volume is shrinking and entrepreneurship—and boost employ(C&EN, Oct. 31, page 7). ment—in the chemical enterprise. ◾ WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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Wyatt Copycat C&E News FP Bleed.indd 1
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BASF
COVE R STORY
eral blockbuster drugs, outsourcing, and other pressures. However, job cuts in pharma may be declining. Those announced during the first three quarters of 2011 totaled 19,076, according to the outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. For the same period in 2010, 43,334 job cuts were announced, and in the first three quarters of 2009, pharma job cut announcements totaled 58,583.
TEAMWORK
Butch Day (left) and Richie Martello review data at BASF’s diols plant in Geismar, La.
IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, an-
ANEMIC RECOVERY RESTRAINS HIRING UNSTABLE ECONOMY serves as backdrop for huge
range in chemical companies’ hiring behavior SOPHIE L. ROVNER, C&EN WASHINGTON
U.S. WORKERS have had to cope with a rough-and-tumble job market for the past four years, and it’s not clear that 2012 will be much better. The Great Recession officially ended more than two years ago, but unemployment remains stubbornly high. After peaking in October 2009 at 10.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis, it dropped to a low of 8.8% this March and has been fluctuating between 9.0 and 9.2% since then, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Given that dismal record, it’s hardly surprising that nearly half the 14.0 million people who are unemployed have been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Looking ahead, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the unemployment rate won’t drop below 8% until 2014. Chemists have suffered right along with other U.S. workers. Surveys of American Chemical Society members show that unemployment among chemists and chemical engineers reached 3.9% in 2009—considerably higher than the 2.3–2.4% rate seen in 2007–08. “Even though it’s still a much better story than for the U.S. as a whole,” that degree of joblessness is “still quite significant to chemists,” says Elizabeth C. McGaha, manager
for the society’s Department of Research & Member Insights, which carries out the surveys. The situation has been even worse for new graduates than for chemists and chemical engineers as a group, McGaha says. The unemployment rate for new grads, which was 7.2% in 2007, jumped to 9.5% in 2008 and 11.4% in 2009, according to the ACS Survey of New Graduates. The pressure appears to have eased slightly in 2010. Unemployment for new graduates was 10.7%, while that for ACS chemists and chemical engineers as a group was 3.8%. Nevertheless, McGaha says that “we’ll need to see the 2011 data before suggesting any stabilization.” Her caution stems in part from uncertainty about the reasons for the decline in unemployment. For instance, did the decline result from laid-off chemists finding new jobs as opposed to quitting the job market in favor of additional schooling or retirement? McGaha’s team hopes to tackle these questions in coming years. The sector that’s taken the hardest hit since the recession began is the pharmaceutical industry, which has cut thousands of positions in the U.S. as a result of the expiration of patent protection on sevWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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nounced jobs cuts stood at 2,447 during the first three quarters of 2011. During the same period in 2010, they reached 1,716, and in the first three quarters of 2009, job cut announcements totaled 54,219. Other indicators suggest that the job market may be stabilizing. For instance, preliminary figures indicate employment in the chemical manufacturing sector in September 2011 totaled 784,900 on a seasonally adjusted basis, up 1.4% from the prior month and up 0.4% from September 2010, according to BLS. Trends for the coming year are hard to predict. “Economists are divided,” says T. Kevin Swift, chief economist for the American Chemistry Council (ACC). “Some feel that we’ll skirt a recession, but it will be slow growth. Some feel that we’re going to slip back into a recession. “If demand falls off, so would production and probably employment,” Swift says. “But offsetting that to a large extent” is revitalized petrochemical development. Indeed, 11 companies have already announced they will build, expand, or restart integrated petrochemical facilities in North America over the next seven years or so, according to the chemical consulting firm Chemical Market Associates Inc. (CMAI). These projects are being enabled by competitively priced feedstocks of natural gas liquids (NGLs), primarily ethane, which the petrochemical facilities will use to produce ethylene. These NGLs are being extracted from largely untapped shale deposits, including the Marcellus and Utica deposits in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania (C&EN, June 13, page 9). “As these investments are made, you’re going to see some fairly good gains over the next decade in terms of the industry’s employment, which will include chemists and chemical engineers,” Swift says.
He expects that demand for chemists and chemical engineers associated with these shale gas projects will be highest on the Gulf Coast, primarily in Texas and Louisiana. Demand might also develop in Pennsylvania, New York, or West Virginia if petrochemical producers build plants near the shale deposits. In all, ACC estimates that a projected 25% increase in ethane supply will create more than 17,000 jobs in the chemical industry. One company that has announced major investments in petrochemical capacity, both in the U.S. and overseas, is Dow Chemical (C&EN, April 25, page 20). These projects are already driving up demand for new employees. Dow has “seen a significant increase in hiring this year compared to 2010,” says Jennifer Frame, director of workforce planning. “It exceeded our forecast.” The increase has been concentrated in the chemical engineering sector rather than in chemistry, however. Chemical engineers are needed for investments on the U.S. Gulf Coast that are ramping up over the next several years to
MINOR IMPROVEMENT Unemployment remains high for chemists and chemical engineers. Unemployment rate, % 12 ◼ New graduates
10 ◼ ACS members 8 6 4 2 0 2000
02
04
06
08
10
NOTE: Unemployed and seeking employment. SOURCES: ACS Starting Salary Survey, ACS Comprehensive Salary & Employment Status Survey (2000–10)
support increased production of ethylene and propylene. The company is also hiring entry-level chemical engineers to fill openings resulting from increased retirements and to succeed some experienced Dow engineers who have taken on design work for
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