On a month-to-month basis, chemical industry employment declined steadily from the January 1994 high of 1.069 million to a December 1996 low of 1.028 million. Between those two dates, the industry dropped 41,000 workers. And although average employment levels were under the December '96 low during 1997, the industry had 1.029 million workers in December 1997 - 1,000 more than in December 1996.

In 1997, chemical employment dropped midyear, then recovered

a Seasonally adjusted employment in U.S. chemicals and allied products industry.
Source: Department of Labor

Chemical production jobs have not declined as precipitously or as steadily on a month-to-month basis as have overall industry jobs. At the beginning of 1994, the industry employed 579,000 production workers. Despite employment levels that dipped to 574,000 in August 1994, employment reached 584,000 by October 1995, before declining again through 1996 to 567,000, where it held for four months. However, by the end of last year, employment had recovered to 575,000.

Chemical production jobs approached past levels by end of 1997

a Seasonally adjusted employment in U.S. chemicals and allied products industry.
Source: Department of Labor

Average annual industry employment in the past 10 years peaked in 1990 at 1.086 million, but it has steadily declined despite a temporary bump up in 1992, according to the Department of Labor. Employment dropped 5,000 again in 1997 to 1.027 million, although on a percentage basis the drop was barely noticeable.

With the exception of drug manufacturing, all segments of the industry have lost jobs since 1990. And all but two segments lost jobs last year: paints and allied products and miscellaneous chemical products. The drug category showed such a slight increase in employment in 1997 that rounding essentially placed the increase at zero.

Average annual employment of chemical production workers dropped more dramatically than that of overall employment, which includes sales, clerical, and managerial employees. Since peaking in 1989 at 603,000 jobs, production ranks have declined to 568,000. Between 1989 and 1997, every category of production worker had job declines as well, except for the drug sector. In 1997, only paints and allied products and industrial inorganic chemicals segments experienced job increases of 4% and 2%, respectively.

As the average number of production jobs declined, the average length of the workweek for workers in the chemicals and allied products sector remained at 43.2 hours in 1997, the same as in 1996. However, according to the Labor Department, more than half of production-category workers put in longer hours in 1997 than they did in 1996, including those in the industrial inorganic chemicals; pharmaceuticals; soaps, cleaners, and toilet goods; and paints and allied products segments.

Industrial employment of women rose over the past decade. Whereas women made up 27% of total chemical industry employment in 1987, they accounted for 32% in 1997. The percentage of women working in the chemical industry matched the percentage for all manufacturing in 1997. That was not the case in 1987, when the chemical industry was more of a male-dominated domain than was all manufacturing.

Employment at the 22 major chemical companies dropped between 1987 and 1997. Between 1996 and 1997, these companies cut 14,000 jobs. That amounted to a 5% drop and brought total employment to 259,100 for the 22 companies. A significant reason for the change was W.R. Grace's spin-off of its Cryovac packaging unit to Sealed Air Corp. As a result, Grace reported 6,300 continuing employees at the company, down 11,100 from the end of 1996.

Because the group of 22 companies employed 5% fewer workers in 1997 than the year before and because they also saw increased sales, companies were more productive. Average sales per employee rose from $305,200 in 1996 to $311,500 in 1997, a 2% increase. Sales per employee rose at an average annual rate of 6.2% between 1987 and 1997; total employment over that period declined at an average annual rate of 2.7%. In the company listings, Morton International appears now in place of Loctite on last year's table because German chemical and detergent maker Henkel acquired Loctite last year.

EMPLOYMENT TABLES
Productivity:Another increase