Chemical Engineering November 2011 - 17

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ENGINEER DEMAND
STRONG, BUT ECONOMY
CONSTRAINS HIRING
A tight chem engineering labor market is tempered
by delayed retirement and depressed housing
S
ignificant demand persists within
the chemical process industries
(CPI) for those with engineering
backgrounds and technical skills.
Companies across many CPI sectors
are finding it difficult to find enough
individuals with chemical and engineering
skills and expertise to staff
their operations. But despite strong demand
for technical skills, recruitment
of chemical engineers is somewhat constrained
by a stubbornly slow economic
recovery and continued uncertainty
over the future economic situation.
In the difficult economic environment,
and depressed housing market,
companies are generally not making
broad hiring moves, and are very
picky with those they do make, holding
out for candidates with near perfect
matches to the particular mix of experience
for which they are searching. In
addition, both individual engineers and
companies face hurdles to job changes
and staffing due to the difficulty selling
homes in many markets.
" In almost every company I have
dealt with, one of the top challenges is
finding scientific and engineering talent, "
says Kevin Swift, chief economist
and managing director at the American
Chemical Council (Washington,
D.C.;
www.americanchemistry.com).
For example, Kraton Performance
Polymers (Houston; www.kraton.com)
CEO Kevin Fogarty notes that his
company has had a difficult time finding
engineers for its business in styrenic
block copolymers. " Overall, there
may be high unemployment, but it's
a different situation for technical talent
- it's a very tight labor market for
those folks, " he says.
Strong demand appears to exist for
entry-level workers as well, with chemical
engineering graduates continuing
to find work opportunities. In one
case, Heather Fahlenkamp, assistant
professor in the Chemical Engineering
Department at Oklahoma State University
(OSU; Stillwater, Okla.; www.
okstate.edu) reports " 100% placement "
into the workforce of 2010 graduates
who sought jobs, rather than graduate
school. Department faculty noted that
many graduates were offered signing
bonuses, and starting salaries ranged
from $50,000 to $90,000 annually.
Drivers of demand
Although a weak housing market and
other forces have tempered the limited
economic recovery, the prospects for
medium- to longterm growth in the
chemical industry are good, suggests
Swift, and that bodes well for chemical
engineers and their opportunities.
There are a number of additional forces
at play driving the need for engineers.
For example, in the U.S., the effect of
the shale gas supply has put this country
in a stronger export position, and
%
%
North
America 56.4
Europe 9.7
Asia 16.5
Australia,
New Zealand,
Indonesia 2.1
Africa 2.7
South
and Central
America 11.5
Educational background
%
%
Chemical
engineering 72.1
Mechanical
engineering 11.9
Petroleum
engineering 1.1
Other
engineering 7.0
Other
chemistry 4.6
Non-technical 1.5
FIGURES 1-2. Just under half of
respondents to the October CE salary
survey (box, p. 19) live in North America,
while more than a quarter live in Asia.
Chemical engineering is by far the most
common educational background
will be a force for job creation over the
next three to seven years, Swift says.
Larry Jacobson,
executive director
of the National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE; Alexandria,
Va.; www.nspe.org) sees an even wider
trend in the need for engineeringtrained
workers. Engineers are becoming
increasingly important to diverse
aspects of the future of the planet, including
national security and military
operations, as well as economic growth
and government projects. " Engineers
are no longer seen as people who design
and build stuff; they are seen as
essential for solving the world's problems, "
Jacobson says.
Despite the demand for individuals
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM NOVEMBER 2011 17
http://www.okstate.edu http://www.nspe.org http://www.americanchemistry.com http://www.kraton.com http://WWW.CHE.COM
Chemical Engineering November 2011

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