The Academic Job Market

The academic job market is complicated and ever-changing. NCA has gathered data, information, and resources about the academic job market generally and the job market in the communication arts & sciences specifically to assist job seekers and job providers. Here you'll find information about the number of Ph.D.s produced in communication, data about job positions in communication, tenure-track vs. non tenure-track academic positions, academic salaries, and resources & other information sources.
 

•  Number of Ph.D.s Produced in Communication 

¹ From the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates. The NSF categorizes earned doctorates in Communication with Librarianship. There are fewer doctoral programs in Library & Information Sciences than in Communication. The number of earned doctorates from other disciplines is offered for comparative purposes.

•  Job Positions Data  

NCA annually tracks the job postings submitted to CRTNET and to the NCA online Career Center (http://www.natcom.org/findajob/). The chart below reports the total number of job postings by year for 2005-2011.

NCA has conducted two extensive analyses of job postings in Communication:

• Analysis of Job Postings, 2002-2004 
• Analysis of Job Postings, 2005-2010  

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains also employment data for numerous sectors of the economy, including “Communications Teachers, Postsecondary." This employment category includes individuals who “teach courses in communications, such as organizational communications, public relations, radio/television broadcasting, and journalism. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

• Number of individuals employed nationally in this category, 2011: 29,610
• Mean annual wage, 2011: $67,560
• Individuals employed in College, Universities, & Professional Schools, 2011: 20, 910
• Individuals employed in Junior Colleges, 2011: 9,240
• Top five states for postsecondary Communications Teachers employment, 2011: California, Texas, Ohio, New York, Florida
• Top five metropolitan areas for postsecondary Communications Teachers employment, 2011: New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Washington, DC
• Top five nonmetropolitan areas for postsecondary Communications Teachers employment, 2011: Southern Ohio, Kansas, Western North Carolina, Central Missouri, West Central Kentucky

• Tenure-Track vs. Non Tenure-Track/Adjunct Teaching 

NCA's analysis of job postings from 2005-2010 reveals that of 3,328 posted job announcements, 549 were identified as adjunct/non tenure-track/visiting positions--a total of 17% of all job announcements. The tables below indicate the changing nature of the professoriate.

Source: The Delphi Project: The Changing Faculty and Student Success, 2012. Available here.

Resources:

•  “10 Ways to Get Yourself Fired,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2012.
• “AAUP Contingent Faculty Index, 2006,” American Association of University Professors, 2006.
• American Association of University Professors, “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession,” November, 2003.
• The Adjunct Project (blog)
• The Coalition on the Academic Workforce, “A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members,” June 2012.
• John S. Levin & Genevieve G. Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty,” American Behavioral Scientist 55 (2011): 1461-1484. doi: 10.1177/0002764211409382 
•  “Job Market Looks Brighter for Some Ph.D.’s,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 8, 2012.
• Steve Street, Maria Maisto, Esther Merves, & Gary Rhoades, “Who is Professor ‘Staff’: And How can this Person Teach So Many Classes?” Center for the Future of Higher Education, August 2012.

• Academic Salaries 

These are the average faculty salaries by rank for "Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education's Almanac of Higher Education for 2012:

By comparison, the AAUP reports the following data about average faculty salaries by rank across all disciplines for 2012.

 
NCA's 2011 Survey of Department Chairs in Communication reveals the following average salary data, based on the responses from 271 Communication department chairs or heads.

The 2011 NCA Survey of Department Chairs also reported on the average annual institutional travel support per faculty member, organized by type of institution.

  Resources & Other Information:

•  “The Almanac of Higher Education 2012,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 
•  Adam Fulton, “Negotiate Like a Professor,”Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2011.
•  “Great Colleges to Work For 2012,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 5, 2012.
•  Nate Kreuter, “Salary Realities,” Inside Higher Ed, September 5, 2012.  
•  “Presidential Pay vs. Faculty Salary Increases,2006-2010,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 
• Cheryl Reed & Dawn M. Formo, “Negotiating a Faculty Job Offer,” Inside Higher Ed, April 11, 2012.
• “Tuition & Fees vs. Faculty Salaries, 1981-2011,” The Chronicle of Higher Education.