Lots of chemical employment-related letters to the editor

Also in this week's C&EN: 

Readers shared their frustrations with job opportunities for chemists.
cenm.ag/greatrecession 

It’s not as if the picture for chemists looks any rosier today or that the crisis in recruitment suddenly occurred in 2008. In the U.K., go back 25 years and the old ICI [Imperial Chemical Industries] was still in existence, as well as corporate research at companies such as Albright & Wilson, before considering that this was before the consolidation in the pharmaceutical sector. By the time I finished my Ph.D. in 1999, many companies had closed down and pharmaceutical companies were not recruiting due to impending mergers. Indeed, my first job was in software development for an accountancy software company. There are too many chemists chasing too few jobs. In addition, chemistry does a poor job relative to other sciences in equipping graduates with transferable skills for careers outside the laboratory. 

Russell Griffiths 

I also got nailed in 2008. I have a B.S. [in] chemistry and at the time had 22 years’ experience. I was an associate director of process chemistry at a small company in New Jersey. When I got laid off from that position, it took me 18 months to find a contract position as a technical writer at a big pharma. That lasted one year. After another year of unemployment, plus hundreds of applications, I landed a position in academia as a staff chemist. That ended five years later as the grant I was being paid under expired. Now I am searching again. Over the past six months since I was laid off from academia, hundreds of applications nationwide and one overseas, nothing!!! It is more difficult now for a B.S.-level chemist even with 33 years’ experience to find a position. Going back for a Ph.D. is not an option. It is very frustrating!!! 

Steven Johnson

It would be really interesting to know how many people are still dealing with the aftermath of the Great Recession, and how many chemists have annual incomes that still have not recovered to the pre-crash peak.