Chemistry and chemical engineering graduates who launched their careers last year seem to have found a relatively favorable job market. Most of the class of '98 who went looking for jobs found them. And the salaries they were offered were comfortably ahead of what was obtained by new graduates the previous year. A large share of the 1998 graduates, of course, are busily continuing their scientific education rather than working.

As of last October, 47% of 1998 grads with bachelor's degrees in chemistry had found full-time employment, according to the latest survey by the American Chemical Society (ACS) of the career status of college and university graduates. Another 44% were in graduate or medical school on a full-time basis. Only 6% were still looking for work.

Graduates with master's degrees in chemistry were more likely to be working; 57% of them had full-time jobs, and 35% were continuing their studies. Five percent had looked for a position without success. These results for new chemical graduates at the bachelor's and master's level are about the same as those from the ACS survey of the class of 1997.

Chemists who earned a Ph.D. last year seem to have done a bit better than was the case the year before. For them, 49% had full-time jobs, up from 41% for the class of 1997; 46% held postdoctoral appointments, down from 52%. Only about 3% were unemployed but looking for work last October, compared with 5% a year earlier. Graduates in chemical engineering are much more likely to be working instead of continuing their education. Of those with bachelor's degrees, 76% had full-time jobs by last October, and just 13% were in graduate school. On the other hand, 8% found themselves still unemployed. These figures, too, are in line with the results from last year's ACS survey.

Starting Salaries
Salaries offered to chemistry graduates in the class of 1998 were up, if only modestly, from starting salaries obtained by the class of '97. The median for those with a bachelor's degree was $30,000 a year, 3% higher than the year before. The median salary for graduates with master's degrees was $40,000, up 5%. Chemists with a newly minted Ph.D., though, scored a solid 8% gain to $59,650.

Graduates who had a year or more of work experience before being awarded their degrees generally garnered higher salaries than those with little or no work experience. For example, the median earned by chemists who held a bachelor's degree and had worked more than three years before graduation was $35,000 a year; for those in the majority with little or no previous technical employment, it was just $29,500.

With inflation in check during the past couple of years, the increase in starting salaries last year was 2% for chemists with new bachelor's degrees, 4% for chemists with master's degrees, and 7% for those winning a Ph.D. That is a considerably more favorable record than earlier in the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1996, starting salaries earned by new chemists actually lost ground when measured against changes in the cost of living.

Chemical engineers earn more, as a rule, than chemists. The median starting salary last year for engineers with a bachelor's degree was $45,000 annually, 5% more than in 1997. Chemical engineers who were awarded a doctorate were being paid, at the median, $66,000, an increase of 8%.

Although most of last year's graduates who went looking for employment found it, the job market seemed less than robust. The typical chemist or chemical engineer had only one to two offers, although those with doctorates did slightly better. Chemists with bachelor's degrees generally found work within three months; similar chemical engineers needed to search about four months. Chemists and chemical engineers with a doctorate had to search a bit longer, typically taking five to six months to find a suitable position.

ACS Survey
Results from the most recent ACS survey are based on responses from nearly 5000 chemists and more than 1000 chemical engineers living in the United States. The survey was conducted by Mary W. Jordan, senior research analyst in the ACS Department of Career Services for the Society's Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs. More detailed results from the survey will be published by ACS later this year in the book Starting Salaries 1998.