Job Census

How many jobs are offered each year in the humanities? Surprisingly, we don't exactly know. In literature, we do have the MLA Job Report, but this hasn't been updated in the last couple years. The discipline is changing -- and collapsing -- more quickly than that. This "census" is meant to be an informal count of the jobs advertised each year, using the Academic Jobs Wiki as its primary source.

These data compile the jobs listed in the Jobs Wiki for every year since 2011; for this year (2020-21) only, they also include 90 jobs advertised in the MLA JIL (with 21 duplicates manually removed), gleaned from email alerts collected by Ben Schmidt. The data is described here, and the code used to gather it is described here.

Results

Number of jobs by type

Number of jobs by field (all)

Code

1. Run the numbers on the Wiki

2. Parse the MLA JIL emails

3. Synthesize the data

4. Manual process: Give aliases to fields

5. Plot results

Data

1. Jobs scraped from Jobs Wiki

2. Jobs from MLA job alerts

3. Field aliases

Sources

1. Academic Jobs Wiki

   • Pages linked to from:

     • English Literature: 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020
     • Ethnic Studies (now its own page): 2020

   • Those pages are:

     • 20-21 c. American: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • 20th and 21st-Century American: 2019 | 2020
     • African & African American Studies: 2020
     • African American: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • African American Literature: 2020
     • American Open: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 | 2020
     • American Regional: 2019
     • American Studies: 2020
     • Anglophone: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Anglophone and World Literature / Postcolonial: 2019 | 2020
     • Applied Linguistics/TESOL: 2019 | 2020
     • Asian & Asian American Studies: 2020
     • British Open: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 | 2020
     • Canadian: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019
     • Canadian Literature: 2019
     • Chicanx & Latinx Studies: 2020
     • Children's: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Children's and Young Adult: 2019 | 2020
     • Classics: 2019 | 2020
     • Communication and Media Studies: 2020
     • Community Colleges: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 | 2020
     • Comparative: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Comparative Literature: 2019 | 2020
     • Creative Writing: 2019 | 2019 | 2021
     • CreativeWriting: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
     • Critical Theory: 2019 | 2020
     • Drama, Speech, Film & New Media: 2011
     • Early American: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Early Modern / Renaissance: 2019 | 2020
     • Early and 19th-Century American: 2019 | 2020
     • East Asian Studies, Languages, and Literatures: 2020
     • Eastern European & Eurasian Languages & Literatures: 2020
     • English Education / Primary and Secondary Literacy: 2019 | 2020
     • English Lit Salaries: 2011 | 2012 | 2019 | 2020
     • English Lit Salaries for AY: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017
     • English Literature: 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2020
     • Environmental: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Environmental Literature: 2019 | 2020
     • Ethnic American Literature: 2019
     • Ethnic Studies: 2019 | 2020
     • Film Studies: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020
     • French & Francophone: 2020
     • Generalist: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Generalist and Open: 2019 | 2020
     • German: 2020
     • Humanities and Social Sciences Postdocs: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020
     • Irish: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2018
     • Irish, Scottish, or Welsh Literature: 2019 | 2020
     • Italian: 2020
     • Jewish Studies: 2019 | 2020
     • Linguistics: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020
     • Medieval: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 | 2020
     • Middle Eastern Studies & Languages: 2020
     • Modern British: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Modern and Contemporary British: 2019 | 2020
     • Musicology/Ethnomusicology: 2020
     • Native American Studies: 2020
     • New Media and Digital Humanities: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 | 2020
     • North American Regional: 2020
     • Northern European Studies & Languages: 2020
     • Other Ethnic American: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
     • Philosophy: 2020
     • Piano: 2020
     • Poetry: 2020
     • Queer/Women's/Gender Studies: 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2019 | 2020
     • Renaissance: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Restoration / 18th Century British: 2019 | 2020
     • Restoration/18th-Century: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Rhetoric/Composition: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020
     • Rhetoric/Composition Salaries for AY: 2014
     • Romanticism / Victorian / 19th Century British: 2019 | 2020
     • Romanticism, Victorian/19th: 2011 | 2012
     • Romanticism/Victorian/19th: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Social Work: 2020
     • South Asian, Indian Ocean, & Himalayan Studies & Languages: 2020
     • Southern: 2014 | 2015 | 2016
     • Spanish and Portuguese: 2020
     • TESOL / Applied Linguistics: 2012
     • Theatre: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
     • Theatre / Drama: 2019 | 2020
     • Theory: 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
     • Translation Studies: 2019 | 2020
     • Womens/Gender/Queer Studies: 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
2. MLA JIL (2020-2021)
   • Collected by Ben Schmidt