Employment Eases In July

Employment in the U.S. chemical industry decreased slightly in July, but was still ahead of year-earlier figures, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Labor Department. Total industry employment in July declined by just 200 from the previous month to 873,500. Year-over-year, total employment rose by 3,900 from July 2006. Meanwhile, the number of production employees showed healthy increases, rising by 6,500 from June and 4,400 from the comparable month last year to 515,500. The average workweek for July was 42.2 hours, unchanged from June and down from 42.9 hours in July of last year.