Monday, December 14, 2020

I lost a bet: Chemical manufacturing employment is up since December 2013

Credit: Bureau of Labor Statistics
In October 2014, I made a bet with Rob Westervelt of Chemical Week where I claimed that chemical
manufacturing would not grow in the 10 years after December 2013. 

We decided on a $100 charity bet. About once a year, I'd check it, and I would see that I was well behind. I am not sure anyone could have seen the pretty large fall-off that happened in 2020 due to the pandemic. Over the weekend, I decided to cut my losses and I donated $100 to Rob's designated charity, which was City Harvest. Rob was incredibly magnanimous, and graciously asked me to designate a charity, which I did (ACS' Project SEED.) 

I am a little more optimistic about what the numbers for American chemical manufacturing employment might be post-pandemic. Here is hoping that things keep moving in the right direction. 

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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