Job hunting in a recession
Persistence is needed, but there are still career opportunities for chemists
A recession was officially announced in the UK in August and according to the World Bank the global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year, represent the deepest recession since the Second World War. So the outlook may seem bleak for job hunters. But that may not be the case for all chemists. For those willing to be persistent and flexible, opportunities for career progression are still out there.
Even before the pandemic, ‘2021 was probably going to be the year where we saw some redundancies,’ says Laura Woodward, career and professional development adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). With the impact of Brexit looming large, there were already signs of trouble, with large companies like Novartis and Rolls Royce announcing layoffs. Then Covid-19 arrived. ‘In mid-March recruitment just dropped off a cliff … everybody panicked,’ says Zara Jackson, managing director of Network Scientific Recruitment based in Harrogate, who recruits for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.