Chemical Jobs Rise Slightly

The Department of Labor reports the U.S. chemical industry had 873,000 employees on a seasonally adjusted basis in March, up by only 100 from February but 7,800 more than in March of last year. Meanwhile, the number of production workers in the industry in March was unchanged from the previous month at 504,700 but up 4,700 from March 2006. These workers put in a slightly longer workweek in March, 41.9 hours compared with 41.7 hours in February. One year earlier, the workweek averaged 42.7 hours. The government's index of aggregate weekly production hours, a product of the number of hourly employees and the hours they work, rose to 94.1 in March (2003 = 100) from 93.6 during the prior month but was down from 96.8 in March 2006.