CEPA Oral Report to CouncilAugust 2010 – Boston MA

Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs (CEPA)

Boston, MA National Meeting

August 25, 2010

Mister President and Members of Council:

At this meeting, the Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs (CEPA)focused on job creation and retention. There are continuing signs of recovery that might be characterized as a slow thaw. We are seeing an increased number of employers at the Career Fair, as well as online job listings on the ACS Careers Jobs Database. However, we are still observing the effects of the massive mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Furthermore, we are aware that large companies are highly capitalized, which indicates that more mergers and acquisitions are likely in the coming years.

[Slide 1]

The current slide shows data for this Career Fair. We are encouraged by the increased number of employers and job opportunities relative to recent meetings; however, numbers still have not returned to pre-recession levels. We will continue to monitor the situation.

A recent survey of employers indicates that many of them are starting to hire, but do not have enough open positions to justify participating in a national career fair. As well, many of our members cannot afford to travel to national and regional meetings to attend career fairs. To better accommodate employer and job seeker needs, ACS Careers will host a Virtual Career Fair on November 2nd and 3rd. Please note that the date has changed since our written report was printed. The virtual fair will feature an interactive platform, text and video chat, webinars and 24/7 availability with no associated travel costs.

At the Public Policy Focus Group held last spring in San Francisco, the overwhelming concern, to nobody’s surprise, was job creation and retention. Secondary issues mentioned include immigration, education, retirement security and sustainability. CEPA is prioritizing these issues, and is prepared to collaborate with other relevant committees to address them.

[Slide 2]

During this meeting, CEPA developed several recommendations in the key areas listed on the slide, for consideration by the Board Committees on Public Affairs and Public Relations (PA&PR) and Professional and Member Relations (P&MR), as they develop their policy statement on scientific job creation.

The ACS Webinars series has experienced substantial growth, with several recent programs reaching the capacity of our current platform. We are considering the expansion to a twice weekly event, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to accommodate demand.

CEPA organized or co-sponsored several symposia. In addition, our volunteer Career Consultants and Presentersconducted 38 workshops, and hundreds of mock interviews and resume reviews. We expect the programming to be just as active at the national meeting in Anaheim.

Mister President this concludes my report.

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