The Chemical World This Week
HIRING OF SCIENCE GRADUATES UP SHARPLY As spring draws to a close, it's be coming evident that the period has resolved any lingering doubts from the winter on the state of technical and other employment in the U.S. chemical world. Employment has made a solid advance in the past several months by virtually all mea sures. For new graduates of all kinds, the hiring push continues this year in in dustry, schools, and government For scientific and technical professionals as a whole, demand shot up again this spring after idling during the winter. And for the million-plus employees in the chemicals and allied products industry, a similar renewed increase brought their number this spring nearly back to its prerecession peak. The good news on hiring of new graduates derives from survey results disclosed last week by the College Placement Council, Bethlehem, Pa. Graduates in scientific and technical disciplines did especially well as em ployers took on 18% more graduates than a year ago. This was higher than the 12% increase expected last fall. Engineering hires rose 33%. Hires in the sciences, mathematics, and other technical disciplines rose 28%. In business areas, the increase was 16%. As in previous years in the 1970's, these disciplines performed better than did nontechnical areas, primar ily humanities and social sciences, where hires this year rose just 1% over 1976. Furthermore, CPC says, the overall hiring trend for new graduates is ex pected to remain upward next year. One third of the 700 employers re sponding to the latest survey said that they expect to hire more graduates in the next school year. More than half of these employers believe that they will take on about the same number. Only 7% anticipate a drop, and 6% are uncertain. In the academic year just ended,
Engineer/scientist demand up 45% in past year Index 3
1977 1976 1972
April
March
February January.
139.8 120.5 125.7 128.3 96.6 87.4 93.2 77.4 65.6 55.6 56.7 46.4
a 1961 = 100, seasonally adjusted. Source: Deutsch, Shea & Evans Inc
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C&EN June 20, 1977
hiring increases favored advanced degrees, which showed some signs of suffering earlier in the 1970's. At the bachelors level, the gain from last year was 16%. However, the increase was 25% at the masters and 37% at the doctoral level. CPC cites particularly noteworthy gains of 71% for doctoral engineers and 44% for masters-level graduates in the sciences, mathe matics, and other technical disci plines. By employer category, all 19 groups in CPC's survey showed hiring gains from a year ago. There were increases of 40% or more in aerospace/elec tronics/instruments, petroleum, and glass/paper/packaging categories. The next largest gains, about 20 to 25%, were in utilities and transpor tation, nonprofit and educational institutions, building materials manufacturers and construction, re search and consulting, and metals and metal products.
A good-sized pickup in demand for scientific and technical professionals is confirmed by New York City con sultants, Deutsch, Shea & Evans. The firm's engineer/scientist demand index registered a major advance in April to reach a seasonally adjusted 139.8 (1961 = 100) after slipping slightly during the winter to 120.5 in March. The April reading was the highest since 1968. By contrast, the index was below 100 a year ago. For management and production as well as professional employees in the chemicals and allied products industry, April and May brought a similar upsurge. Total employment reached a seasonally adjusted 1,058,000 in May. This means a gain of 14,000 from January and 24,000 from May 1976. Peak prerecession employment was 1,067,000 in Sep tember 1974. Employment at the low point of the recession was about 1 million in mid-1975. G
Kepone disposal by burning shown safe Incineration is a safe and efficient way to dispose of Kepone and burn able Kepone-contaminated materials, according to Eric Bartsch, director of the Virginia Health Department's bureau of sanitary engineering. Bartsch was in charge of the Kepone-burning tests conducted last January and February at the facilities of Midland-Ross Corp.'s surface di vision in Toledo, Ohio. Speaking at a press conference in Toledo, Bartsch called the tests "highly successful," proving that Kepone can be burned with sewage sludge at better than 99.99% effi ciency, with no threat to the com munity, the environment, or operat ing personnel. (Hopewell, Va., home of the former Life Sciences Products Kepone plant, currently has some 1.5 million gal of Kepone-contaminated sewage sludge stored in a lagoon.) The tests showed that Kepone can be destroyed with standard inciner ation techniques and commercially available equipment. Test engineers found that Kepone was incinerated completely when heated to 1900° F for two seconds. Strict environmental and health standards were set and met, Bartsch says. Operating personnel wore res
pirators and disposable paper cover alls. Access to the testing site was re stricted. Showers before leaving the area were mandatory. Blood samples were taken from workers before and after the tests. Air in the work area was checked constantly, as were stack emissions. In support of the tests, Versar Inc., Springfield, Va., ran more than 1000 analyses for trace levels of Kepone. About 87 lb of Kepone was burned, at a cost of $351,000—about $101,000 over original estimates. Bartsch says the cost escalation was caused in part by extremely cold weather and a gas shortage. However, much of the in crease was the result of Occupational Safety & Health Administration re quirements for additional sampling and analysis, safety training, and test modifications. Test data will form the basis for a facility design study, to be made by Design Partnership, a Richmond en gineering firm. The facility will doubtless be in the vicinity of Hopewell, but no specific site has been chosen. Before a plant can be built, Bartsch points out, the state must provide funding, make an en vironmental impact assessment, and hold public hearings. Π
