How rough was the 2016-17 job market for historians? Very rough, according to new data released by the American Historical Association. Job openings for people with history Ph.D.s listed on the association’s careers website dropped to the lowest level in more than three decades.
From June 2016 to June 2017, 501 listings for full-time history positions were posted on the site, marking a 12-percent decline from the previous year, a report on the data shows. It’s the lowest number since the 1984-85 hiring season, when the association posted fewer than 500 jobs.
But back then, fewer than 600 new history Ph.D.s were being produced annually. According to the most recent figures collected by the association, more than 1,100 new Ph.D.s are now coming onto the market each year.
The most recent declines in job postings were spread unevenly across history specialization. For example, jobs in the field of world history continued to proliferate, increasing by 25 percent over the last three years. But positions in African and Middle Eastern history dropped sharply after having held stable in the previous two hiring seasons. And European-history jobs continued a trend of declining.
History is far from the only field whose Ph.D.s are facing a downturn in jobs. The Modern Language Association’s preliminary report on its jobs list recently noted a drop in humanities positions for the fifth straight year.
Of the jobs posted on the historical association’s site, 289 were for tenure-track faculty openings. While positions for history Ph.D.s continue to decline, the association has been uncommonly aggressive in embracing a mission to train historians for nonacademic careers. The association was awarded a $1.6-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2014 to help history students broaden their career paths.
Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a breaking-news reporter. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.
