History Holds Steady

The faculty job market in history stabilized in 2017-18 after several years of steep declines, according to new data from the American Historical Association.

The AHA bases its annual jobs report on advertising figures for its career center and H-Net’s Job Guide. While it’s not the entire jobs outlook for historians -- about a quarter of whom work outside academe -- the report is still good news for them, for now. (The report also doesn't include all academic jobs, but is generally considered representative of trends in the field.)

Listings for full-time positions in the AHA’s career center jumped 8 percent year over year, and unique positions advertised in either venue grew by nearly 2 percent. More than 50 percent of jobs, including those off the tenure track, were at research universities -- where many Ph.D.s say they want to work. Postdoctoral fellowships also continued to grow, making up 21 percent of the jobs listed on each board.