ACS Career Fair (Philadelphia):
Registered Job Seekers: 999
Employers: 45
Number of Jobs: 148
Recruiters Row: 12
Virtual Career Fair (Online):
Registered Job Seekers: 1,499
Registered Employers: 13
Number of Jobs: 41
1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.
What's the job market like for chemists? Dude -- it's always bad.*
How bad is it? How the heck should I know? Quantifying the chemistry job market is what this blog is about. That, and helping chemists find jobs.
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(*For the literal-minded, this is a joke. Mostly.)
It's starting to look like Thunderdome...two chemists enter, one chemist leaves!
ReplyDeleteActually, those are far better odds for victory.
DeleteBy all accounts the ACS Career Fair was a resounding success, however we should not ignore a disturbing fact. Within a week of this premiere employment event, number of new positions posted on our career website exceeded 70% of Fair's offerings. This is a direct proof of shortage of scientists and a crushing blow to the detractors of our long-standing support of increasing the number of chemistry graduates.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Medellin. What we need to increase our competitiveness is have an open immigration policy for those qualified foreigners who can fill the jobs Americans just won't do.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, have i mentioned that global warming is real?
No Rowdy, it's not that they won't do it, they simply can't do it, the main reason being well-documented skill gap. That is why we need to improve our science education by providing more funding to graduate schools.
DeleteAGW is real, but do you know that recent research shows that a significant contributor is hot pants - yes, that deplorable custom perpetuated by white androcracy? The group responsible for the skill gap in the first place?
@Madellin Jacobs: 70% of 148 is 104. That's 104 jobs with 1500 applicants. Probably more applicants as those who did not get jobs at the fair probably went online.
ReplyDelete"Direct proof" of a shortage of scientists?
The evidence presented by yourself suggests there are over 10 applicants for every single job. Thereby supporting the hypothesis that there is no shortage of scientists.
You're not honestly taking to the fake Madeleine Jacobs, are you?
DeleteAnonymous, your argument is faulty. The reason is simple - by itself number of applicants is meaningless, because there is no telling if any of them are qualified, and if you read the news you should know how few of them really are. Multiple news outlets, including ACS own C&EN reported on this very real problem and I will be happy to provide you with links if you need proof. In any case, the real indicator you need to look at is the rate at which positions are recycled, and that, 70+% so far this week, is a disturbing news for anyone who cares about the state of chemistry education in the US. Importantly, the recycle rate also allows for a direct estimate of how wide the skill gap really is. A simple calculation (1 - (148-107)/1499) shows it to be staggering 97.3%!
DeleteBy my computations, that is 7 and 41 applicants for each job. That is extreemly low for a job fair. Even in good times, 100 to 1 is not considered unusual and some that I have seen reported have been 500 to 1.
ReplyDelete