Some chemists getting ready to attend the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), to take place in Anaheim, Calif., April 2-6, undoubtedly are preoccupied by personal concerns: According to a recently released ACS survey, salary increases for those working in the field during the 12-month period that ended March 1, 1994, were the lowest in a decade. And those in a position to receive these meager pay raises are the lucky ones--in the year studied, the survey found, chemistry unemployment reached a 22-year high.
The findings underscore that "there's still a lot of trimming going on in the chemical industry, and it's just starting to hit the pharmaceutical industry," says Corinne Marasco, a senior research associate at ACS.
"The basic chemical companies have been hurt by worldwide overcapacity. It's a mature industry, and there's no longer the tremendous growth associated with the postwar period. And so there's less ...
