Monday, December 29, 2008

Chemjobber Index: Jul to Dec 2008

So, thanks to my coworker's magazines and a few days off, I've been able to put together the original Chemjobber data set. It covers issues from late July to mid-December 2008; it does NOT cover all the issues, merely all the issues that I've been able to find lying around the office.

I've tallied number of positions, total ads and total area* in square centimeters for industry, governmental (foreign and domestic) and university positions. For the academic page, I've tallied the type of job. In the long run, I will do the same for the industrial positions by field (analytical, organic, etc.) and position (BS/MS, PhD., whatever).


Conclusions?


1. Academic >>>> Industrial >> governmental positions.
There are a lot of tenure-track positions out there -- a lot. The average number of tenure-track professor positions published per week far outstrips total number of industrial positions offered. Governmental positions are few and far between.

It's worth noting that the academic sections' graph actually understate the number of advertised positions, because I did not include the September 8 "Back to School" issue with 154 open tenure-track positions. It is telling that for the issues indexed, there were only ~112 open industrial positions at all levels advertised in C&EN.

2. September? Not so bad. December? Well... There are good hiring months and bad ones; September seems to be pretty good, while December is a terrible time to try to find a job. I suppose that's not such a big surprise. I know there's a cyclical nature to hiring in chemistry, I've just yet to figure out what that is exactly.


3. The market's not so great for working chemists. With the exception of the occasional mass ad, neither chemical companies nor Big Pharma have been seeking new employees. This is not good for either those of the layoff class of fiscal year 2008 or the new grads of academic year 2009. Then again, maybe there will be a turnaround and all of this will be moot. I don't think so, but one can hope.


*I've decided to use total area as the Chemjobber Index number from now on; if it proves not be useful, I'll change it. While it's not perfect, I think it's a good combination of the measure of intensity (willingness to spend money to try to find someone) and the number of positions available (while half-pagers can be used to try to hire one senior-level member, they're also used to hire many people with one ad.)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

For Mitch.

[Formerly here, a photograph of JJLC's incredibly awesomely located lab facility.] While I don't think much of JJLC, I don't wish in any way for this to be seen as harassment. As I said, it's just a great place to put a lab. (I'm curious if his neighbors know, though.)

Enjoy, Mitch. Don't know if I'm going to have it up forever.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Chemjobber C&EN index: 12/15/08

New issue of C&EN, more not-so-great news. (Maybe it's the holiday break?)

Industrial (non-academic, non-governmental) positions:
Total number of ads: 0
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 0
- Area (square cm): 0

Governmental positions:
Total number of ads: 1
- Permanent positions: 0 (analytical)
- Postdocs: 1 (LANL, organometallic?)
- Area (square cm): 30.8

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 7
- Postdocs: 0
- Tenure-track faculty: 5
- Temporary faculty: 0
- Lecturer positions: 2
- Staff positions: 1
- Area (square cm): 373.6

While there are exactly ZERO positions for industry, it is either the last or one of the last issues for the year. The academic section has another fun regional school (University of North Carolina at Pembroke, student population 6303, SA-LUTE!) and one of our era's interesting innovations*, the US school with a Middle East branch, New York University Abu Dhabi. If you're looking for a faculty position in science, NYU Abu Dhabi may be for you. (I'm guessing that with the drop in oil prices, the endowment may be a little in trouble. Who knows?)

*Okay, so the American University in Lebanon may have been around for awhile.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

San Diego: A measurement of the quality of the local job market

The local ACS section publishes a monthly newsletter with job listings. I've taken the time to tabulate all the newsletters that I could find, starting in August of 2006. Below is a graph of the number of ads by month. 
If you would have asked me what the job market was like in San Diego for chemists, I would have told you that it sucked. I regret to inform myself that, well, looking at this chart, it wasn't that bad and that I was applying (since 2/08) right through one of the summer peaks. 

I suppose that it would be nice to have some data from 2004 or 2005, but it looks pretty steady. Older San Diego hands have told me that the market's been bad for awhile here -- I believe them.

Upshot: not as bad as I would have guessed. Still, not a perfect measurement of the chemistry job market. More work to do, I guess. 

P.S. If anyone has a similar means of measuring for other job markets (or hotbeds, as Biospace would have it), let me know in the comments. 

Monday, December 15, 2008

Chemjobber C&EN index: 12/1/08

A quick ransacking of my coworker's mailbox has yielded some more older C&EN issues, again from the last 2 to 3 weeks.

Industrial (non-academic, non-governmental) positions:
Total number of ads: 2
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 2 ads, 4 positions (3 in Shanghai!)
- Area (square cm): 153

Well-meaning ACS initiatives: 1

Governmental positions:
Total number of ads: 1
- Permanent positions: 1 (analytical)
- Area (square cm): 49.8

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 7
- Postdocs: 0
- Tenure-track faculty: 8
- Temporary faculty: 0
- Lecturer positions: 0
- Staff positions: 0
- Area (square cm): 311.5

Chemjobber C&EN index: 11/24/08

A quick ransacking of my coworker's mailbox has yielded some more older C&EN issues, again from the last 2 to 3 weeks.

Industrial (non-academic, non-governmental) positions:
Total number of ads: 2
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 2 ads, 7 positions (wooo!)
- Area (square cm): 145.8

Governmental positions:
Total number of ads: 1
- Permanent positions: 4 available positions (all explosives research - neat!)
- Area (square cm): 13.1

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 17

- Postdocs: 2
- Tenure-track faculty: 13
- Temporary faculty: 0
- Lecturer positions: 1
- Staff positions: 0
- Area (square cm): 900.5

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Chemjobber Index: 11/10/08

As I find old copies of C&E News, I'll be subjecting them to the Chemjobber Index.* This one was from a couple of weeks ago. For the guy or gal looking to find a job in The Real World, it wasn't much better.


Industrial (non-academic) positions:

Total number of ads: 4
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 3
- Baloney good-hearted ACS initiatives: 1
- Overseas positions (a.k.a. come back to China! your family misses you!): 1

Not much here!

Academic positions:

Total number of ads: 25

- Postdocs: 1
- Tenure-track faculty: 18
- Temporary faculty: 2
- Lecturer positions: 3
- Staff positions: 2

One of the best parts of a close reading of the academic section is that you run into schools you never knew existed. Kutztown University, student population of 10,193, SA-LUTE!

* At some point, the Chemjobber Index will have to transform itself into a single number. What should that number be and how should it be derived? Inquiring minds want to know.

Chemjobber Index: 12/8/08

Industrial positions:

Total number of ads: 2
Ads for postdocs: 1
Ads for permanent positions: 1

Boy -- this week sucks. Only one true industrial ad (Millenium, quarter panel) and a couple of ads from governmental areas. Whoo!

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 16
Postdocs: 0
Tenure-track faculty: 10
Temporary faculty: 2
Lecturer positions: 2
Staff positions: 2

Slow week for all.

Chemistry jobs index

This blog is a running measurement of the quality of the job market for chemists. As time goes on and the job market gets better or worse (more likely worse!), more measurements will come into play.

Initially, this will be a simple counting of the number of jobs listed in the employment sections of the weekly issues of Chemical and Engineering News.