Home Annual Meeting 2012 Annual Meeting News Employment Center 2012 Statistics

Employment Center 2012 Statistics Reveal Employment Trends in the Field PDF-NOTE: Internet Explorer Users, right click the PDF Icon and choose [save target as] if you are experiencing problems with clicking. Print

The Annual Meeting Employment Center is designed to ease the communication process between candidates for academic positions and employers seeking to fill available positions. The Employment Center features an Annual Meetings edition of Employment Listings, candidate credentials for review, a message center, and interview facilities.

The 2012 Annual Meetings Employment Center saw a total of 656 candidates and 96 open positions. We experienced a 3 percent increase in open positions registered for the Employment Center from 2011 while the number of registered candidates decreased by 7 percent.

The ratio of registered positions to registered candidates was 1:6.8. Though there was only a slight increase in positions available this year in comparison to last year, this ratio indicates that, as in previous years, the number of candidates continues to exceed the number of positions available.

Employers 2012 2011 2010
Positions Registered 96 93
65
Total Institutions Registered 81
76
58
Preregistered 76
67 61
Registered Onsite 5
9
4
Ratio of Positions to Candidates 1:6.8 1:7.6 1:7.7
Candidates
Total Registered 656
705
504
Preregistered 623 680
491
AAR Members 409 450
SBL Members 169 190
Joint Members 45 40
Registered Onsite 33 25
13
Female Participants 227
228
47
Male Participants 378 354
69
Did Not Report Gender 51 123
388
Ratio of Female to Male 1:1.7 1:1.6 1:1.5

Each year, the AAR gathers data about job positions and candidates registered for the Center. Each position is required to have a primary classification from a provided list. Positions may also have additional classifications. Candidates are able to select a primary classifications and one additional classification if they wish, although this is not required. The “primary” columns indicate the number of times each classification was chosen as a primary choice (click here to see full chart).

When drawing conclusions from this data, it is important to think of the motivations that guide employers’ and candidates’ choices. Employers tend to choose more broad classifications that correspond to the classes needing to be taught. They are likely willing to consider candidates from an array of specializations as long as each person can teach general courses. In contrast, a candidate’s primary choice is usually his or her area of research, though they can teach more broadly. Take New Testament as an example — one need not specialize in this area to teach a course. The fact that the classification had a 1:7.8 ratio when considering just primary classifications in 2012 does not automatically mean that candidates who chose the classification each had a 13 percent chance of getting a job.

Another example is Asian Religions. From looking at the number of times this classification was chosen as primary in 2012, it might seem that each candidate in that field had about a 100 percent chance of getting a job. However, many candidates who chose Buddhism, Hinduism, or World Religions as their specialty have the ability to teach Asian Religions. So employers needing an Asian Religions professor are not limited to only those candidates who consider it to be their specialty.

This is where the “all” columns come into play. These columns indicate the total number of times a classification was chosen as either primary or “additional.” These columns often give better indications of the ratio of positions to candidates within a particular subfield. Take the example from above. Many of the candidates who chose Hinduism or World Religions likely chose Asian Religions as an additional choice. Therefore, the position-to-position ratio of 1:2.1 is a better indicator of how many candidates might have sought a particular position.

Still, because of the different motivations that guide choices and because many of the classifications are interrelated, the candidate-to-job ratios shown cannot give a clear indication of a candidate’s chances of getting a job. Rather, they serve mainly to identify trends in position openings and candidate specializations.

The AAR has been compiling registration data since 1990. This data is available on the AAR website.

 

This website contains archived issues of Religious Studies News published online from March 2010 to May 2013, and PDF versions of print editions published from Winter 2001 to October 2009.

This site also contains archived issues of Spotlight on Teaching (May 1999 to May 2013) and Spotlight on Theological Education (March 2007 to March 2013).

For current issues of RSN, beginning with the October 2013 issue, please see here.


Banner