WASHINGTON (August 25, 2021) – The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has published the 2021 edition of the Guide to the Business of Chemistry, a comprehensive economic profile of the U.S. chemistry industry and its contributions to the domestic and global economies.
American chemistry is the world’s second-largest producer, providing 13% percent of its chemicals and over 9% of all U.S. goods exports. It is one of America’s largest manufacturing industries, a $486 billion enterprise providing 529,000 skilled, high-paying jobs. For every chemistry industry job, 6.8 jobs are generated elsewhere in the economy, totaling more than 4.1 million chemistry-dependent jobs. Building and construction, automotive, electronics, and agriculture are among the many sectors that rely on the chemistry industry.
“In addition to supporting efforts to combat COVID-19, the products of chemistry enable higher living standards and help meet the needs of a growing global population.” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC. “Innovation into materials, applications and processes is key to advances in human development, and the U.S. chemical industry is helping to expand frontiers, investing more than $10 billion in research and development activities last year alone.”
Prepared annually by ACC’s Economics and Statistics Department, the Guide to the Business of Chemistry divides the U.S. chemical industry into more than 30 categories of production, ranging from inorganic chemicals to plastic resins, adhesives and sealants to oilfield chemicals, and fertilizers to consumer products. Within each segment, the report highlights distinct characteristics including growth dynamics, markets, new developments, and other issues affecting each sector.
Individual sections of the guide cover a variety of topics in detail. These include financial performance; U.S. and global trade; innovation; capital investment; employment; environmental, health and safety statistics; energy; and distribution. Charts and graphs illustrate data and provide comparisons with the past several years.
The 2021 Guide to the Business of Chemistry is available on ACC’s website. The Guide along with comprehensive data tables dating back to 1990 may be purchased through the ACC Store. The Guide and data are available to ACC members at no cost through ACC’s MemberExchange.
