Employment Outlook: Clouded

Abstract

THIS WEEK’S ISSUE is C&EN’s annual Employment Outlook feature, which consists of a story on demand for chemists by Assistant Managing Editor for ACS News & Special Features Sophie Rovner, a story on how to make the best use of headhunters by Senior Editor Susan Ainsworth, and a story on efforts by ACS to support innovation in chemistry and to assist chemical entrepreneurs by News Editor William Schulz. The job market for chemists has not been bright over the past few years. Even before the onset of the Great Recession, mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry and the trend toward outsourcing fine and custom chemical synthesis to companies in China, India, and elsewhere had cut into chemical employment in the U.S. The recession exacerbated the employment woes of too many chemists. Although the Great Recession ended more than two years ago, as Rovner points out, unemployment remains high. Chemists and chemical engineers ...