Economy's Toll on Job Market Is Evident at Historians' Meeting

By Robin Wilson

New York

A five-year stretch of steady growth in the job market for academic historians is over, the American Historical Association announced at its annual meeting here last weekend.

The number of job advertisements colleges have posted with the association so far this academic year is down 15 percent from last year—the first decline since a slump that occurred in 2001-2 and 2002-3.

Robert B. Townsend, assistant director of research and publications at the association,