CEPA: "Demand for workers in the U.S., including chemists, remains weak."

Also in this week's C&EN, a writeup of the different committee business conducted at ACS New Orleans, including this report from the Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs:

The unemployment rate for all ACS chemists was 4.2% as of March 2012. The unemployment rate for new chemistry graduates as measured in August 2012 was 12.6%, down slightly from the prior year, but still three times greater than the rate for all ACS chemists as a group. The Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs is especially distressed about the plight of new graduates, postdocs, and long-term unemployed workers. CEPA continues to develop and deliver programs for these most affected groups. 

Demand for workers in the U.S., including chemists, remains weak. Starting salaries are one measure of demand for new chemistry graduates. The greatest demand for graduating chemists is in product development. Graduating chemists are also in higher demand than average in the areas of management and professional services. Traditional career paths like industrial research and academic employment show weaker demand. 

The difference in median salaries for newly graduated women and men remains high, with men out-earning women by $6,000, but modest gains in parity can be seen when compared with figures from 2011. Unfortunately, the lessening of this gap has more to do with falling salaries for men than with gains in women’s salaries. 

...The number of employers on-site was down slightly from Philadelphia. The addition of the virtual component provided access to more than 500 additional job seekers and 11 additional employers. Some 31 workshops, 252 mock interviews, 449 resume reviews, and four live webinar events were conducted at this meeting.—Lisa M. Balbes, Chair

(Am I crazy for thinking that if you had a resume review done, you should be practically forced to do a mock interview?)