NY Times: At Colleges, Humanities Job Outlook Gets Bleaker [View All]

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At Colleges, Humanities Job Outlook Gets Bleaker

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: December 17, 2009


With colleges and universities cutting back because of the recession, the job outlook for graduate students in language and literature is bleaker than ever before.

Economy Doesn’t Slow Demand for Early Entry to College (December 18, 2009) According to the Modern Language Association’s forecast of job listings, released Thursday, faculty positions will decline 37 percent, the biggest drop since the group began tracking its job listings 35 years ago.

The projection, based on a comparison between the number of jobs listed in October 2008 and October 2009, follows a 26 percent drop the previous year.

“Students thinking of going to graduate school in English should understand that right now their chance of landing a job that provides them a livable wage is 50-60 percent,” said Rosemary Feal, executive director of the M.L.A., the world’s largest association of scholars and professors of language and literature. “What I often hear from grad students is, ‘I had no clue it was this bad.’ They need to go into it with their eyes wide open.”

While the association does not having listings for every academic position available, its list does track the overall faculty job market. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/education/18professor.html?_r=1&hpw