Higher Education Employment Continues to Decline in Q3 2013 as Job Postings Advance

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Dec. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of jobs in higher education decreased in Q3 2013 for the third quarter in a row.  At the same time, the number of advertisements for job openings in higher education continued to grow at a faster pace according to a just released report from HigherEdJobs^®, the leading source for jobs and career information in academia. The full report can be viewed here: http://www.higheredjobs.com/career/quarterly-report.cfm.

An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by HigherEdJobs found the total number of jobs in higher education was down 1.4 percent in Q3 2013, or about 23,000 jobs. This was the third consecutive quarter that higher education jobs have declined after several years of stable growth, albeit slowing in recent years, throughout the recession. This period also marks the fourth quarter in a row that the overall U.S. job growth rate surpassed the growth rate for higher education jobs. As a result, the percentage of U.S. jobs that are in higher education was lower in Q3 2013 by 0.04 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

In sharp contrast to the declining numbers of jobs in higher education, the number of advertisements for job openings in academia continued to increase at a faster rate. One possible explanation is that colleges and universities may be losing increasing numbers of employees -- either to other institutions, non-educational employers, or to retirement -- and are choosing to fill only a portion of the vacancies. According to data from HigherEdJobs, a pattern of uniform and stable employment in higher education has emerged recently with only relatively slight changes occurring in different categories of job postings including part-time compared to full-time, faculty compared to administrators, as well as regional job posting trends.

The report, which also includes annual recaps, analyzes job posting data from colleges and universities that have continuously subscribed to the company's unlimited posting plan for four years, a group of more than 850 schools, as well as data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

HigherEdJobs is the leading source for jobs and career information in academia. During 2012, more than 5,350 colleges and universities posted more than 117,000 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.

SOURCE HigherEdJobs