Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Employment in Higher Education Declines in Q1 2015; Ads for Part-Time Positions Outpace Full-Time Job Postings

  • 05/26/15

STATE COLLEGE, PA – The number of jobs in higher education declined 0.5 percent in Q1 2015, according to a recent report from HigherEdJobs, a leading job and career site for higher education professionals.

According to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by HigherEdJobs, the 0.5 percent drop in higher education employment represents a loss of 8,600 college and university jobs. Community colleges were particularly hard hit, losing 3.8 percent of their workforce, or about 2,700 jobs. Four-year institutions lost only 0.3 percent of their faculty and staff, or about 5,900 jobs.

Interestingly, while the number of jobs in higher education is down, the report found that ads for open positions in academia were up during Q1 2015, and at a faster pace from a year ago.

The divergence of trends between job postings and higher education jobs could indicate that institutions are experiencing increased employee turnover, perhaps due to retirement, moving to other institutions, or for positions outside of academia. “When institutions have a lot of job openings, it doesn't necessarily mean those are ‘ew jobs,’”says John Ikenberry, president of HigherEdJobs. “A high percentage of these openings are for existing positions that have come open. When institutions don't fill their vacancies fast enough to keep up with the number of employees who exit, employment will decline.”

There was good news for individuals looking for full-time faculty positions, as ads for those positions increased 2.7 percent from a year ago. However, that growth was dwarfed by the increase in ads for part-time, adjunct faculty, which surged 37.4 percent.

The report analyzes the most current data from BLS and HigherEdJobs' posting trends from colleges and universities that have continuously subscribed to the company's unlimited posting plan for four years, a group of roughly 890 schools that have no financial deterrent not to post any openings. View the full report.

HigherEdJobs® is the leading source for jobs and career information in academia. During 2014, over 5,300 colleges and universities posted more than 159,000 faculty, administrative, and executive job postings to the company's website, which receives more than 1,000,000 unique visitors a month. HigherEdJobs is published by Internet Employment Linkage, Inc. and is headquartered in State College, PA.

Featured

  • Porter Family Center

    Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Indiana University Launches Capital Campus in D.C.

    Indiana University recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new IU Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., according to university news. The eight-story facility will provide a central hub for the university’s existing programs and business operations based in D.C., uniting them under one roof and providing the opportunity to expand.

  • Cleveland High School Breaks Ground on Modernization

    Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore., recently announced that construction has begun on a modernization project for Cleveland High School, according to a news release. The existing building will be replaced with a new, 300,000-square-foot facility at the same site.