Chemicals

The chemicals sector is made up of companies that generate industrial chemicals. It is a diverse industry, essential to our modern economy, and involves converting raw materials into a wide range of products or raw materials for other manufacturing industries.

There are over

jobs in this sector in Hull and East Yorkshire

This accounts for less than

of jobs in the region

Did you know?

The chemical sector is a top exporter, sending £54bn of manufactured goods abroad each year.
The chemical sector directly employs 151,000 highly skilled people in the UK, who earn 45% more than the average worker in the whole economy.
The Humber is the 2nd largest chemical production cluster in the UK.
INEOS Acetyls, located at the Saltend Chemicals Park, is the largest producer of acetic acid, acetic anhydride and ethyl acetate in Europe.

Source: Chemical Industries Association

Will there be opportunities available?

The chemical sector provides many of the technologies needed to transition to a low carbon economy, and their highly skilled, technically advanced workforce can play a leading role in industrial decarbonisation.
The drive to Net-Zero and the introduction of new digital technologies is expected to alter the day-to-day operations and working practices of chemical companies in the coming years and presents an opportunity to engage the next generation of highly skilled workers.
Employers in the chemical sector predict that the demand for higher-level skills will increase further, with extensive demand for innovation, research & design and engineering skills.
Over 36% of the workforce in the chemical sector are over the age of 50.

Source: Future Skills for the Chemical Industries, ONS

Check out careers in the Chemicals sector in Career of the Week

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Careerometer

The Careerometer can be used to explore and compare key information about occupations, help you learn about different occupations and identify potential careers. It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation.

Use the boxes below to simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.