Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Chemist unemployment worse for minorities

From this week's Chemical and Engineering News, the final comment on Paying It Forward. This week's Comment is from the chair of the ACS Committee on Minority Affairs, Allison Aldridge:
Every day, we read about the dismal employment outlook. Right now, the national unemployment rate is hovering above 9% in the U.S. Chemical workers have generally fared better, with unemployment at 3.8%. As ACS Director-at-Large Valerie J. Kuck explained in last week’s Comment, however, aggregate national employment statistics don’t provide the whole picture (C&EN, Aug. 29, page 41). Kuck focused on key regional differences, noting that employment opportunities for chemists were particularly tight in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific Regions. 
As the chair of the ACS Committee on Minority Affairs, I’d like to draw your attention to employment disparities among minorities. As measured by the 2010 ACS ChemCensus survey, nationwide unemployment among chemical workers is 6.3% for African Americans, 4.6% for Hispanics, and 4.3% for Asians. On the other hand, the national unemployment rate for whites in chemistry is 3.7%. 
Not only are minorities having a more difficult time finding employment, but these employment disparities may also send a signal to young minorities that a career in chemistry may not be the best choice for them. We can speculate about the underlying reasons for the disparities in employment among ethnic and racial groups in chemistry; however, there is no doubt that we need to take action to correct these disparities.
Once again, I'm surprised that like Valerie Kuck last week, Dr. Aldridge chooses to see the ACS member unemployment rate in a relative sense (compared to the national unemployment rate), rather than an absolute one (the 2nd highest in 20 years). Nevertheless, here's hoping something good comes out of ACS' efforts towards Paying It Forward.

7 comments:

  1. Unsure of the point ACS is trying to make. As long as 1)minorities come from less affluent homes and 2)chemistry has a long induction period to pay out, we will always have low numbers.

    That minority unemployment is higher likely reflects the nature of the positions we take, i.e. manufacturing/quality vs. research/regulatory.

    Is it much ado about nothing or steady as she goes?

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  2. You know, that's an interesting point, in that she didn't really have any specific policy proposals, other than pushing PiF and being a ACS Career Consultant. Weird.

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  3. "...these employment disparities may also send a signal to young minorities that a career in chemistry may not be the best choice for them."

    That was obviously written under the assumption that chemistry could possibly be the "best choice" for anyone.

    Regardless...4.3% for Asians? In the general population, unemployment rates for Asians are almost always lower than for whites. Odd.

    And are there massive differences between races in their BS/MS/PhD distributions? This data could be a manifestation of the fact that BS-level chemists regularly get shafted regardless of race, color, or creed.

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  4. I think the answer is fairly simple and has nothing to do with race. I'd bet that the minority ACS members are mostly on the young side and we all how well young people fared during this recession.
    To me it is just another example of ACS's lack of understanding and regard of proper handling of data, and its habit of treating of its members like 1930s Germans.

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  5. Specific to the question about Asians, one thing that works against them is that employers are not willing to pay for visa support anymore.

    I know someone who was told at an interview that the resume selection process was to discard non-citizens, and then choose an "American sounding" name. I'm not shocked that this goes on, but rather that someone admitted it. As unfair as it may sound, it is useful information.

    Those of you with "non-American" names must keep that in mind when you're applying for jobs. If you're a citizen write US CITIZEN in bold letters at the top of your resume. If you go by an American nickname, use that. If your English speaking skills are good, call people whenever possible, these days that's something that will elevate your application.

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  6. I would be interested in data which shows American citizen minorities. I think ACS once again did a poor job of clarifying their data. What they attribute to minorities may only be a matter of visa granting in a period of high unemployment. Did they ensure their sample did not include those that do not require sponsorship?

    I truly doubt that you would see such disparity in unemployment of chemists purely on the factor of race (or even name). In fact, I would venture to guess from my own observations that white male chemist citizen unemployment is MUCH greater than any minority unemployment.

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  7. anon @9:48

    I am sure that in absolute numbers the majority of unemployed chemist are white males simply because the workplace is still dominated by us, but I highly doubt that unemployment rate for whites is hire. I suspect that any statistician not employed by ACS would say that the difference is not statistically significant. On the other hand, after reading all those Madeleine Jacobs editorials from back when 5% of all membership dues was not used to pay her salary, I also suspect that your scenario is the one ACS would prefer and embrace.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20