Political Science Job Market

Inside Higher Ed has a look at the political science job market, and paints a fairly optimistic picture.

the job market continues to show signs of recovery from the economic downturn -- and some subfields appear quite healthy.

I would hesitate before saying so. What I tend to see in the numbers is the "new normal" of non-tenure track positions replacing assistant professor lines. The "all positions" category is close to where it was in 2008-2009.

Job Openings in Political Science

Year All Positions Assistant Professor Positions
2008-9 1,311 619
2009-10 1,080 445
2010-11 1,245 537
2011-12 1,376 586
2012-13 1,273 531

It seems like 2011-2012 was a blip. But in general universities around the country are seeing more adjuncts and fewer tenure track positions. This is bad for students, but state legislatures generally seem uninterested in addressing it.