Chemical employment up in March

U .S. chemical employment increased in March, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Department of Labor. The government numbers show a total of 886,500 employees in the chemical industry last month, up 1,000 from February and 8,600 ahead of March 2005. The number of production workers also increased, rising by 3,600 from the previous month to 523,300. The March figure was 9,600 ahead of the comparable month in 2005. The average workweek fell slightly in March to 42.6 hours from the 42.7 hours reported for February. The March workweek was well ahead of the 42.2 hours seen in the same month in 2005.