BY NEIL EISBERG, EDITOR
Too many in society forget the role that chemicals play in every aspect of modern life.
Of course, without chemistry there’s no way to build the circuit boards and sensors inside our smartphones, or the new batteries for electric vehicles (or the light-weight plastics to counter the extra weight of those new batteries) or the pharmaceuticals that save lives every day and improve the quality of life for millions of people.
But it is not just our products that rely on chemicals. The chemical industry provides well-paid jobs and makes major contributions to the world economy and governments in the form of taxes.
In the US, the chemicals industry creates 554,000 ‘skilled, good-paying jobs’, according to the American Chemistry Council – plus supporting another 4m jobs in other areas. In Europe, it supports 1.2m workers, according to industry group Cefic; in the UK alone chemicals businesses employ somewhere around 140,000 people, plus many more in related industries.
For all the focus on breakthroughs in fundamental science and new materials, or concerns about energy costs or trade tariffs (see opposite, p5, for an update), chemistry is still a business that is based around people.
But they are in short supply, and companies and industries are likely to be on the hunt for even more in future.
In the UK, for example, the Government has identified the life sciences sector as one of the key areas to drive the economic growth that it is looking for in the next few years.
And if this growth is to be achieved then staff with relevant skills will need to be identified and recruited. That will be a bigger challenge than many realise.
SCI’s own SME survey published earlier in 2025 reported that nearly half of the science-based businesses surveyed found it hard or very hard to find the skilled staff that they needed – a third said the UK was uncompetitive when it came to gaining access to the right skills.
Separate SCI research suggests that another 240,000 jobs could be added by 2030 in the life sciences and clean tech sectors alone through an innovation and science-focused industrial strategy.
The UK BioIndustries Association (BIA), is also forecasting up to 70,000 new jobs will be needed in the UK life sciences sector over the next decade ‘to unlock its potential in growing the UK economy’.
Its report Life Sciences 2035: Developing Skills for Future Growth, also points out that not only is the life sciences sector one of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors, it is also among the most highly skilled with 70% of its workforce holding a degree or equivalent qualification, nearly double the national average.
To meet this need for educated and skilled employees, the BIA report calls for increased investments in education and training, the promotion of lifelong learning and the creation of more inclusive workplaces to attract and retain a diverse talent pool.
According to analysis conducted by Universities UK, the impact of graduates in the workforce across important industrial sectors is key in driving national and regional growth. The government forecasts predict the UK workforce will require 11m extra graduates by 2035.
Unfortunately, the numbers of future graduates who see a rewarding career beckoning in the chemical industry have been declining for some time. Chemistry is often not seen as an ‘exciting’ career choice, compared with tech or finance.
University chemistry departments have suffered from this decline, and this feeds through to the numbers of participants who might have previously pursued an academic research career and then generated research that might contribute to the formation of new and innovative commercial spinout companies.
That is not so say that there are no bright and ambitious young scientists in our universities as SCI’s Bright SCIdea competition continues to demonstrate (C&I, 2025, 89, 4, 44). But the shortage of skilled technical staff and plant operators will constrain innovation.
People leaving the industry and taking their years of experience with them is just as big an issue. As many as 30% of current employees, rising to 38% in the German chemical industry, are 50 years of age or older and therefore due to retire within the next decade. The BIA report notes that in the UK up to another 75,000 employees will be needed to replace those leaving the workforce through retirement in its sector.
Another problem: a survey by consultant Accenture analysed how labour productivity, calculated as revenue per full-time equivalent, has stagnated.
Some in the industry believed that artificial intelligence in all its various forms will help overcome this productivity decline. Certainly, it might help – but the application of these technologies requires a skilled workforce possessing the necessary technical expertise and hands-on experience – something that is rapidly becoming the next major shortage after raw materials and energy.
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