The Job Outlook for Chemists is Bleak

For this blog entry I am looking back at my former profession as a chemist. An article in a recent issue of the Chemical and Engineering News  states the unemployment rate of American Chemical Society members is 4.6% which is the highest on record. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the unemployment rate for chemists and materials scientists was 6.1% in 2011. These statistics can be misleading since they don’t count underemployment chemists or those so discouraged that they stopped looking.


I feel badly for the NJIT students who work very hard and then must face a very tough job market after graduation. I  recall that after I received my masters degree in chemistry in January 1974, I was unemployed for 4 months. During that period I worked as a clerk in a bank for a temporary employment agency.