The job market for English and foreign-language scholars is poor, but not as dismal as it seemed in December, according to a new report. Still, the coming year should bring fewer open positions in language scholarship than there have been in least 35 years.
In a midyear analysis of its Job Information List, the Modern Language Association predicts that the number of jobs advertised for English will drop 27.5 percent from last year, and the number of jobs advertised for foreign languages will see a 26.7-percent decline. In a similar report released in December 2009, the MLA predicted a 37-percent fall in 2009-10 for advertisements for both English and foreign-language jobs.
The initial report was based on the number of jobs advertised in the October 2009 list, and the current report takes the December 2009 and February 2010 editions into account. The final count for the year will be available in August.
Last year the number of jobs advertised fell 24.4 percent in English and 27 percent in foreign languages. If this year's projections hold true, there will be a two-year decline of 45.2 percent in English jobs and 46.4 percent in foreign-language jobs. Such drops would be the steepest since the MLA first published the Job Information List, in the 1970s.
Since December, when the MLA released its initial projections for the number of jobs that would be advertised in 2009-10, the job market appears to have improved slightly. The current report suggests that there may have been fewer jobs listed in the October 2009 edition because "hiring has been delayed this year, not disallowed."
Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the MLA, speculated that hiring was probably delayed because budgets were more uncertain in the fall than they are now. And although there has been an uptick in the number of jobs advertised since October, Ms. Feal said that institutions may not actually fill them all.
"It is very much in a state of flux," she said.
Severe budget cuts in state systems as well as the rebounding endowments of some institutions could push hiring either down or up, according to Ms. Feal. She also said that institutions may have to hire if they have reached the minimum number of instructors with which they can operate.
Comments
1. blowback - March 19, 2010 at 08:30 pm
The editing for this "news" update appears to have missed what is clear to any person who has been on the academic job market. Many "posted" positions are never filled. The relationship between positions posted and actual jobs filled has never been equal. Because a department has been allowed to post a position it does not mean that they have given the right to fill it. And since the MLA does not go back to determine if each position posted in its Job List has in fact been filled all this amounts to is much ado about less than nothing. This reminds me of the research undertaken by Profs. Henderson & Morris concerning the way Law Schools lie about their placement rate and starting salaries. Compared to past years I have noticed far fewer positions posted this post-MLA convention period than any other time. This often is the time of year when non-tenured positions are posted by many non-elite schools. There is nothing to apply to. Just look at the number of listings in your own publication. Really, in these difficult times we do not need more second rate reporting. Next time use a bit of logic. We do not need more half-wit happy talk about how things are not as bad as they in fact are. The comments by Ms. Feal clearly contradict the reporter's entire point!!!!!
2. movasima - April 21, 2010 at 11:41 am
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