Swiss newspaper: Novartis to layoff 8000 globally, 1400 cuts to come in Switzerland

Via FiercePharma: 

For months, Novartis has hinted at layoffs coming for some of its global staff. Now, the news has come down from HQ.

Novartis is laying off around 8,000 of its 108,000 staff worldwide in a bid to save $1 billion, the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger was the first to report. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the move on Tuesday.

The news comes as Novartis works to merge its oncology and pharmaceuticals departments into a singular innovative medicines unit. The move "will allow us to reduce duplications of business structures in every country," the company's spokesperson said.

The changes will make Novartis "leaner and simpler," so the company "intends to eliminate roles across the organization," he added.

Further, Novartis is combining its technical operations and customer and technology solutions units into a singular "operations" unit. The drugmaker is making progress on all of these changes and has appointed most of its leadership teams.

In Switzerland, Novartis is cutting up to 1,400 positions, the company's spokesperson said.

Hard to know if this is purely about Novartis, or the beginning of a larger trend. If I had to pick one, I would say it's more of a one-off than not, but who knows? 

2022 Chemjobber Industrial Organic Starting Salary Survey results

I received 49 responses to the Survey of Industrial Organic Chemists and winnowed them down to three categories: 

Major pharma (13 respondents)

• Geography: CA (4), PA (3), New Jersey (2)
• Median respondent got 3 offers
• Most indicated that on-campus interview or connections were most useful
• Median number of applications: 10 applications (low of 2, high of 30)
• Median salary: $117,500 (low of $105,000, high of $138,000)

CMO/chemical industry (13 respondents)

• Geography: NJ, DE (2), TN, NE, CO (2), PA, NJ, MN, CT, TX, NY, OH
• Median respondent got 1 offer
• Web application was most useful for them 
• Median number of applications: 20 applications (low of 4, high of 100)
• Median salary: $95,000 (low of $52,000, high of $135,000)

Biotech new employees (17 respondents)

• Geography: CA (5), MA (7) 
• Median respondent got 1 offer
• Web application was most useful for them 
• Median number of applications: 23.5 applications (low of 1, high of 60)
• Median salary: $121,000 (low of $95,000, high of $175,000)

Pretty interesting, but I wouldn't draw any major trends. More data to come from this, and more analysis. 

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 14 research/teaching positions and 1 teaching position

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 14 research/teaching positions and 1 teaching position. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On June 29, 2021, the 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 16 research/teaching positions. On June 30, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 8 research/teaching positions and two teaching faculty positions. 

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Job posting: NMR/XRD technologist, Department of Chemistry, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON

From the inbox: 

The technologist is responsible for the daily supervision and operational requirements in the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) laboratories. These facilities consist of a JEOL ECZ-400 MHz spectrometer and a Bruker AVANCE 300 MHz spectrometer, as well as a powder and a single crystal X-ray diffraction spectrometer.

The technologist is responsible for teaching faculty, staff and students in the operation of the NMR and XRD spectrometers and the safety precautions that must be adhered to in these laboratories. Proper sample handling and preparation techniques are also taught to ensure the maximize performance from the spectrometers.

The technologist offers both technical advice and guidance to students and research groups to help them choose the best experiments to use for their particular compound.

Full ad here. Deadline is July 4, 2022. Best wishes to all interested.  

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ACC survey of economic forecasters: mixed, but generally positive for 2023

Via the American Chemistry Council's Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report, this survey of economic forecasters: 

• The outlook for 2022 continued to weaken with ongoing inflationary pressures, disruptions related to the  war in Ukraine, and aggressive tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve.
• Expectations into 2023 were also lower for many indicators compared to a month ago.
• U.S. GDP is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2022 as the highest inflation in decades erodes spending and higher interest rates raise borrowing costs. In 2023, forecasters continue to expect the U.S. economy to grow by 1.8%, a pace below its long-term trend.
• Consumer spending is expected to increase by 3.1% in 2022 before slowing further to a 1.7% gain in 2023.
• Business fixed investment will be a larger contributor to GDP growth in 2022 with an expected 5.4% gain. In 2023, growth in business investment is expected to slow to a 3.1% Y/Y pace.
• Industrial production is expected to rise 5.1% in 2022 (as manufacturing continues its momentum and oil & gas activity expands) and 1.9% in 2023.
• With continued supply chain challenges for vehicle manufacturers, expectations for light vehicle sales were lowered again to 14.8 million in 2022 and rising to 16.1 million in 2023. 
• Expectations for housing starts were the same compared to last month at 1.65 million in 2022 but lowered to 1.55 million in 2023. 
• The unemployment rate is expected to average 3.6% in 2022 and 3.8% in 2023.
• Inflation continues to accelerate through mid-year. Expectations for gains in consumer prices continued to grow compared to our mid-year outlook with forecasters looking for inflation of 7.6% in 2022, before easing to a 3.6% pace in 2023, as constraints ease. 
• Compared to last month, expectations for interest rates (10-year Treasury) continued to move higher for 2022, as the Fed implements aggressive tightening. 
• Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Covid lockdowns in China, forecasters have downgraded their expectations for the global economy. Global GDP is expected to rise by 3.2% in 2022 and 2023. Global industrial production, hampered by ongoing supply chain challenges in addition to the disruptions from Chinese lockdowns and the war in Ukraine, will rise 3.9% in 2022 and 3.6% in 2023.
• In addition to ongoing supply chain challenges, slower growth in global GDP and industrial production will be reflected in softer projections for global trade. Following a 10.4% rebound in 2021, global trade volumes are expected to rise by 3.6% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023, both lower than previously expected. 

According to this, there is no prediction for a "technical" recession for 2022 or 2023 (i.e. two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth), this is broadly good news. Either way, I would continue to expect a slowing of hiring (i.e. less torrid than 2021), but still generally a good environment for job seekers. This will be important to watch, especially as the Fed continues to respond to inflation with additional (?) rate increases... 

Slowing in biotech investment

From economics blog Marginal Revolution, a statistic from the Financial Times: 

Just nine biotech companies have listed in the US this year, raising a total of $1bn, according to LifeSci Capital, a boutique investment bank. Almost 60 companies did so in the same period last year, tapping investors for $7.4bn.

 This corroborates what we've been seeing in the biotech media, including this recent article from FierceBiotech: 

The massive $15.9 billion haul for biopharma technology deals in 2021 was always going to be tough to beat, but dealmaking in 2022 is off at a snail's pace, with M&A, IPOs and fundraising all plummeting, according to a new report.

Funding for the world’s biopharma technology companies totaled $2.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, down 10%, according to CB Insights’ State of Biopharma Tech Q1’22 Report. This was the fourth consecutive quarter with a decline in deals, with just 66 signed for the months of January through March.

We already know that M&A has been slow—just ask anyone who came out of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January disappointed with the slew of licensing deals. But the CB Insights report has the details: There was a 60% drop in M&A exits in the first quarter, with just six recorded, compared to 15 in the fourth quarter of 2021.

I imagine this will not really affect hiring per se, but it may slow down some of the wage growth that we're seeing for the Boston or San Francisco area for entry-level scientists... 

Have a great weekend

This was a quieter week than I expected, but that's nice. Next week will be quite busy and stressful (especially before a July 4 weekend!) but that's okay. Have a good weekend, and we'll see you on Monday. 

A Survey of Industrial Organic Chemists

Did you find an entry-level position in industrial organic chemistry in the US in 2020-2022? If so, please take this short survey to help future job seekers. 

Please let others know about this survey! I would really appreciate it if you could send it to relevant friends. 

Thanks, Chemjobber

A Survey of Industrial Organic Chemists

Did you find a position in industrial organic chemistry in the US in 2020-2022? If so, please take this short survey to help future job seekers. 

Please let others know about this survey! Thanks, Chemjobber

Nine basic hiring practices from Edward Nevraumont

Via Marginal Revolution, a list of hiring practices from Edward Nevraumont, an advisor at a private equity firm: 

Most of the time you can win candidates by getting the basics right:

1. Reach out to people, don’t wait for them to come to you.
2. Build relationships before you need them.
3. Develop followership (so people that work with you once will want to work with you again).
4. Get candidates excited for the job before you start screening them.
5. Make your workplace a good place to work for smart and talented people (which is NOT the same as making it a “good place to work” generally, or anything from the HR/PR lists.)
6. Be the type of manager that top talent will want to work for.
7. Ensure that you have someone selling the candidate once you know you want to make an offer and start the selling process before the offer is made.
8. Be polite.
9. Be fast.

If you take care of these type of basic things, you will out-compete almost every rival — without the need for experimental interview techniques that push people “off script.”

I broadly think this is correct, but I really think it is numbers 1 and 2 that are really important for small organization. In other words, if you're running a faculty search for Harvard, you could post the ad on a 3X5 card in a random bathroom in Cambridge and get all the candidates you need. For the rest of us, I really believe that recruiting (especially targeting specific people) is important and probably a much better route than simply posting an ad, and wading from a sea of CVs. 

I also think that numbers 8 and 9 are difficult, but important. Making the process fast is appreciated by everyone, especially if you can get back to everyone, even just to reject their application. 

Job posting: Ambercycle, senior scientist, Los Angeles, CA

From the inbox, this position: 

About Us

...We're developing and scaling a breakthrough technology to manufacture yarns and fabrics from old clothes, without a sacrifice in quality, rather than from petroleum or new agriculture resources. Our apparel products avoid the use of new raw materials and go into the highest quality applications, exceeding the expectations of end customers with a fraction of the environmental footprint. Using our technology, we are fundamentally changing the fashion industry and building the infinite textile ecosystem. For more information, visit www.ambercycle.com

The Job

 We are looking for a highly motivated Senior Scientist who will develop and help scale our technology for making brand new yarns from old clothing. You will help bring Ambercycle’s innovative technology out of the lab and into commercial operation. You will be responsible for experimental process design and implementation and will work closely with the R&D team and the Research and Engineering leadership.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 10 research/teaching positions

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 10 research/teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On June 22, 2021, the 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 14 research/teaching positions. On June 23, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 7 research/teaching positions and two teaching faculty positions. 

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Chemistry Bumper Cars

Check out the latest moves here! 

To submit information, click here or e-mail chembumpercars@gmail.com

A Survey of Industrial Organic Chemists

Did you find a position in industrial organic chemistry in the US in 2020-2022? If so, please take this short survey to help future job seekers. 

Please let others know about this survey! Thanks, Chemjobber

C&EN: "What I learned from my lab accident"

In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, this article from Francesca Lorandi:

In February of this year, I was injured in an accident in a chemistry laboratory. I had set up an experiment that involved the separate use of hydrogen and oxygen gases fed into a glove box from compressed cylinders located in the lab. Though this was a well-established experimental procedure in my research group, something caused an explosion. The specific cause of the accident is still under investigation.

When the explosion occurred, the experiment had been paused for a few hours, and I was standing by the glove box. I spent 7 days in the hospital undergoing surgery for wounds on my face and neck and getting splints and implants for dental trauma. A neck fracture meant I had to wear a brace for 2 months. There are also invisible consequences that I’m still discovering day by day. I’m not confronting them on my own: I ask for help or talk to my partner, family, mentors, friends, and colleagues.

The accident triggered extensive discussions at my institution about safety measures in all the departments that conduct potentially hazardous experiments. Department heads and safety services are implementing changes. Importantly, these changes are aimed at germinating a culture of safety rather than just implementing stricter regulations and promising compliance.

It's quite remarkable to have a pretty open incident report this early on. I'm glad that Dr. Lorandi wrote this article, and I hope that it begins a trend. 

Have a great weekend

This was a pretty good week, really. Could have used not going to urgent care for stitches, but other than that, it was a good week. I hope that you have a great, fun weekend, and we'll see you on Monday.

 

28 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, curated by Brian Struss, there are 28 new positions for June 12. The jobs can be viewed on the website or spreadsheet.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company map, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers. 

Science: Professors report difficulty in recruiting postdoctoral fellows

Via Twitter, this article: 

When Jennifer Mason posted an ad for a postdoc position in early March, she was eager to have someone on board by April or May to tackle recently funded projects. Instead, it took 2 months to receive a single application. Since then, only two more have come in. “Money is just sitting there that isn’t being used … and there’s these projects that aren’t moving anywhere as a result,” says Mason, an assistant professor in genetics at Clemson University.

She isn’t alone. On social media, many U.S. academics have been pointing to widespread challenges in recruiting postdocs. An investigation by Science Careers bears this out: More than 100 U.S.-based researchers were contacted because they advertised for postdoc positions this year on scientific society job boards, and of the 37 who responded with information about their hiring experiences, three-quarters reported challenges recruiting. “This year is hard for me to wrestle with: … we received absolutely zero response from our posting,” one wrote. “The number of applications is 10 times less than 2018-2019,” another wrote.

I'm somewhat sympathetic to professors (especially early-career professors) who rely on postdocs for their work. At the same time, what we are hearing right now (i.e. professors offering lower wages not being able to compete with industry) is the ideal situation. I hope this is the new normal. 

We'll get a chance to find out if it is. I have not been shy in predicting a relative slowdown in hiring this year, and I imagine that within a year, professors will once again have no problem in selling inferior goods filling their postdoctoral positions. We shall see. 

(I suspect this situation has to do with Trump-era tightening of immigration, i.e. it has been more difficult to get international students and Ph.D. graduates to get visas. I haven't articles contrasting the Biden Administration's positions on this - anyone have relevant knowledge to share?) 

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 8 research/teaching positions

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 8 research/teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On June 15, 2021, the 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 9 research/teaching positions. On June 16, 2020, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 6 research/teaching positions. 

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Job posting: director of instructional and research support, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, St. Mary's College of Maryland

From the inbox: 

St. Mary’s College of Maryland at Historic St. Mary’s City is accepting résumés for the position of Director of Instructional and Research Support for Chemistry and Biochemistry. The director acts as the department laboratory manager in support of instructional and research activities, and teaches the equivalent of six laboratory sections per academic year.

Non-sectarian since its founding, St. Mary's College of Maryland, a public Carnegie Baccalaureate, Arts and Sciences institution located in Historic St. Mary's City, 70 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., has been designated as Maryland's public honors college.  Undergraduate and residential in nature, with a diverse coeducational student body numbering approximately 1600, St. Mary's emphasizes excellence in teaching.  The institution was awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1997.  The quality of life is enhanced by the recreational opportunities of the Chesapeake region and close proximity to the amenities of Washington D.C., Baltimore and Richmond.

Qualifications: Master’s degree in biochemistry, chemistry, or related scientific field, or bachelor’s degree with documented equivalent experience.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.  

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Bloomberg: CSB chair Lemos quits

Via Bloomberg: 

The head of a federal safety agency that investigates major industrial accidents has submitted her resignation, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg.

Katherine Lemos’s departure would leave the five-person US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board with two members, though the White House said this week it would nominate Catherine J.K. Sandoval, a professor at California’s Santa Clara University, to the board.

The turmoil at the Chemical Safety Board is, by now, not really news, but the fact that it keeps happening, across three presidential administrations tends to indicate there's something strange going on there...  

Post-pandemic, the US private sector is almost all the way back

Via Axios, this economic news: 

Stunning stat: The private sector has recovered 99% of all jobs lost, but public sector has regained just 58% — one illustration of the gaping hole that persists in certain areas of the economy.

Other industries have recovered and then some: the transportation and warehousing sector — think package couriers or truckers — has never made up a bigger share of the workforce, reflecting, for one, the historic appetite for goods.

The manufacturing sector is currently 17,000 positions short of its pre-pandemic peak (so close to 99%?), and that's where chemists mostly are. 

Have a great weekend

This week wasn't quite as rough as I might have been worrying, but here we are at the end of it. Hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend (maybe with some sunshine in the outdoors?) See you on Monday. 

 

C&EN on Karen Wetterhahn

In the pages of Chemical and Engineering News, this remarkable profile of Karen Wetterhahn in her life and her legacy in her death from dimethylmercury poisoning: 

...On Aug. 14, 1996, Wetterhahn was working in a fume hood in her research group’s lab. By that point in her career, she didn’t get to spend much time at the bench, but this was a task she didn’t want anyone else doing...

This article by Sam Lemonick is really worth a read - good thoughts about both chemical safety and her far-reaching legacy within. 

64 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

 Over at Common Organic Chemistry, curated by Brian Struss, there are 64 new positions for June 5. The jobs can be viewed on the website or spreadsheet.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company map, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers. 

OPRD: A Call for Papers to Openly Discuss Chemical Incidents

From the inbox: 

...We believe that ACS Chemical Health & Safety is well positioned to “fill the gaps” to help the scientific community learn from the experiences of others by sharing our experiences in a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) that highlights chemical incidents. In VSIs, manuscripts are initially published in a regular issue shortly after they are accepted for publication. Once all VSI papers have been accepted, they are collected onto a single webpage, giving additional exposure to each author’s work. Our goal in collating this VSI is to promote an open and informative environment where incidents and near misses can be shared by researchers, without blame or shame for those involved, to educate and prevent others from experiencing similar consequences. 

...We can start by normalizing the discussion of safety incidents where we openly discuss chemical incidents, missing safety information, ineffective risk assessments, and even our own mistakes. To that end, we seek submissions related to incidents and near misses involving the following:

• unexpected hazards from chemicals, processes, and equipment
• organizational reviews of repeated incidents
• chronic and acute exposure to chemicals
• proactive and reactive responses to natural disasters
• mental health outcomes related to incidents, near misses, or general safety culture
• other experiences and challenges in transitioning from a blame culture to a just culture

Seems like a good thing to do. Full call here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Is a difficult name a problem in your job search?

Via Marginal Revolution, this interesting paper: 

This paper tests for the existence of labor market discrimination based on a previously unstudied characteristic: name fluency. Using data on over 1,500 economics job market candidates from roughly 100 PhD programs during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 job market cycles, we find that having a name that takes longer to pronounce is associated with 1) a significantly lower likelihood of being placed into an academic job or obtaining a tenure track position; and 2) an initial placement at an institution with lower research productivity, as measured by the research rankings in the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) database. We obtain similar results using two alternative ways of measuring pronunciation difficulty, a computer generated algorithm based on commonality of letter and phoneme combinations and a subjective measure based on individual ratings, and they hold after the inclusion of many control variables including fixed effects for PhD institution and home country.

Would be interesting to see what is "difficult to pronounce" (i.e. do Xi, Krishnamurthy or Krzyzewski count?) I could imagine all three being either easy or difficult, depending on the pronouncer. Also, I strongly suspect that this would reproduce in chemistry and for industry...

The 2023 Faculty Jobs List: 4 research/teaching positions

The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 4 research/teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This will serve as the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

The 2022 Faculty Jobs List: 592 research/teaching positions and 110 teaching positions

The 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 592 research/teaching positions and 110 teaching positions. 

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On June 7, 2021, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 339 research/teaching position and 67 teaching positions. On June 2, 2020, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 557 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching positions.

This will be the last post for the 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List. 

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the fourth open thread. Here's the third open thread. Go to the second open thread. Here is the first open thread. The first open thread was closed on November 10, 2021.

Here is Sean Edington's status summary spreadsheet.

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Chemistry Bumper Cars

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The geographical distribution of chemistry jobs from 1991, 2011 and 2021

An ad from 1991 
Credit: Chemical and Engineering News

I am pleased to find myself back in the pages of Chemical and Engineering News, this time looking at pages of old back issues and analyzing the geographical distribution of the various jobs. I think you'll be somewhat surprised at what I found, so read the whole thing. 

ACC: Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends

Via the American Chemistry Council, their weekly report of economic trends: 

Employment

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 390,000 in May, the smallest monthly gain since April 2021. Notable job gains were in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and transportation and warehousing. Employment in retail trade declined. Employment remains below pre-Covid levels by 822,000. Manufacturing payrolls grew by 18,000, the 13th month of consecutive monthly gains. Average hourly wages for non-supervisory and production workers grew by 6.5% Y/Y to $27.33, the slowest annual pace since December. The labor force grew and most new entrants moved into the ranks of the employed. The participation rate ticked up to 60.1%, tying March for the highest rate since the pandemic began. The unemployment rate remained steady for a third month at 3.6%. 

Chemical industry employment 

Chemical industry employment (including pharmaceuticals) rose by 3,700 (0.4%) in May as gains in production workers offset a decline in supervisory and non-production workers. Compared to a year ago, chemical industry employment was up by 27,400 (3.2% Y/Y). Average hourly wages in chemical manufacturing rose 1.4% Y/Y to $27.12. The average workweek expanded by ½ hour to 41.2 hours. Combined with employment gains, the labor input into the chemical industry was up 2.2% which was consistent with the ISM Manufacturing PMI report that suggested the chemical industry experienced moderate-to-strong growth in May. 

Chemical shipments

Within the details of the ISM Manufacturing PMI report, chemical products was listed as one of the industries reporting moderate-to-strong growth in May. Chemical industry respondents reported growth in new orders, higher  inventories, increased employment growth, new export orders, and imports and paying higher prices for raw materials in May. They reported no change in order backlogs, that customer inventories were “too low” and slower supplier deliveries reflecting continued obstacles across the supply chain, with labor and through the transportation and distribution network. One plastics and rubber products respondent provided a comment: “Price increases haven’t let up. I thought 2022 was going to be better, but it hasn’t been. Shortages (among other issues) are disrupting the supply chain.” 

Mostly good news, it seems. 

Have a great weekend

Well, I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked, but a couple of the big things we wanted to do got done. I hope you have a great weekend, and see you on Monday. 

Can the Fed engineer a soft landing?

Via the New York Times, thoughts about the current state of the economy: 

When it comes to the economy, more is usually better.

Bigger job gains, faster wage growth and more consumer spending are all, in normal times, signs of a healthy economy. Growth might not be sufficient to ensure widespread prosperity, but it is necessary — making any loss of momentum a worrying sign that the economy could be losing steam or, worse, headed into a recession.

But these are not normal times. With nearly twice as many open jobs as available workers and companies struggling to meet record demand, many economists and policymakers argue that what the economy needs right now is not more, but less — less hiring, less wage growth and above all less inflation, which is running at its fastest pace in four decades...

And some thoughts within from progressive economist Mike Konczal: 

...The Fed’s efforts to cool off the economy are already bearing fruit, Mr. Konczal said. Mortgage rates have risen sharply, and there are signs that the housing market is slowing as a result. The stock market has lost almost 15 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. That loss of wealth is likely to lead at least some consumers to pull back on their spending, which will lead to a pullback in hiring. Job openings fell in April, though they remained high, and wage growth has eased.

“There’s a lot of evidence to suggest the economy has already slowed down,” Mr. Konczal said. He said he was optimistic that the United States was on a path toward “normalizing to a regular good economy” instead of the boomlike one it has experienced over the past year.

My broad prediction continues to be that the job market for entry-level chemists in fall of 2022 will be less good than the fall of 2021, but how much less is the question that is truly difficult to answer. I suspect that it will be "somewhat less good" (0-10% fewer job openings?), but not "significantly less good" (10-25+%), but I genuinely have no good way to measure this, other than the Faculty Jobs List (?). Perhaps Organic Chemistry Jobs is the place to monitor. 

Anyway, this is something that I am continuing to watch, so if you would like to enter a prediction with falsifiability in the comments, I would welcome that. 

The Column's Product of the Day: orthopedic casts

Via the always excellent The Column, orthopedic casts: 

“The material casts are made of is a knitted fiber soaked with a polyisocyanate prepolymer. The fiber is typically fiberglass (long strands of glass surrounded by a polymer) or a polyester like PET. The polyisocyanate prepolymer is a usually a polyether polyol (like this polypropylene glycol from Covestro) with MDI end caps. When this stuff hits water it cures (forms crosslinks) and become the rigid polyurethane that protects your (or someone else's) healing bones.“

Enjoy! 

ACS CEO Thomas Connelly to retire at the end of 2022

Via C&EN (article by Bibiana Campos Seijo):

American Chemical Society chief executive officer Thomas Connelly will retire at the end of 2022 after more than 7 years of service as its CEO. ACS publishes C&EN.

“Tom has provided strong leadership for ACS throughout his tenure, especially over the past two years as we experienced a once in a lifetime challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Paul W. Jagodzinski, chair of the ACS Board of Directors, in a press release. “We look forward to Tom’s continued leadership through the rest of 2022 and wish him all the best as he enters the next chapter of his life in 2023.”

...The ACS Board of Directors will start the search for a new CEO immediately. The Board intends to identify a successor before the end of the year to ensure continuity.