I know that COVID-19 has upended everything, including the academic job market. However, every few years I've gone though PhilJobs and tallied up job-market ads to see what the year's academic job market has been like, and I was curious what this year's market was like so I've gone and done another tally. I realize that PhilJobs isn't a complete sample, as a good number of jobs may only be advertised elsewhere, such as at HigherEdJobs. However, collecting and collating this kind of data is really hard work and PhilJobs is the easiest to work with (by far)--so that is the sample I use each year.

Anyway, this year I did a PhilJobs search for ads posted between August 1st, 2019 and yesterday, April 21st. Given that very few ads are still coming out, this search seems to me to give a pretty good picture of what this year's market looked like--at least before any hires were cancelled due to COVID-19. Because it's not always clear which searches have been cancelled, I have not taken that into account, and anyway I think it's more interesting to learn which kinds of jobs were advertised, even if they did not complete the hires.

A few quick notes. The methodology I've always used in this series works as follows. When I encounter jobs with two AOS;s (e.g. metaphysics, moral philosophy), I counted each job as '.5' jobs in that area (or in the case of 3 AOS, '.33' jobs, etc.). Although I recognize this is a bit odd, it seems to me to make sense, as a job like that could go to someone in any of the listed AOSs, not just one particular AOS. Because I did this with all jobs, the numbers seem to me to accurately weight whether a job is in a particular AOS simpliciter, or whether it was also available to candidates in other AOS. Second, I only counted "junior-level" jobs (i.e. postdocs, lecturer, and Assistant Professor positions), not Associate or Professor level jobs. Third, I only counted academic jobs (leaving the very few non-academic jobs advertised on PhilJobs to the side). Finally, while I tried to get the numbers right, this is just a "quick and dirty" tally, not a formal study. While I don't think there are any major errors, I wouldn't be surprised if made a minor mistake or two. Here is the spreadsheet I put together, if anyone is interested in double-checking things. I'm happy to make any corrections.

In any case, here are a few highlights (readers can dive into the spreadsheet if they want to look at the distribution of jobs within particular AOS's):

TOTAL (junior-level) faculty jobs advertised = 468

Value theory (ethics, social, political, law) = 153 jobs (32.7%)

= 153 jobs (32.7%) Open AOS: 133.6 jobs (28.5%)

133.6 jobs (28.5%) Science (including cog. sci) = 50 jobs (10.7%)

= 50 jobs (10.7%) Core (mind, language, metaphysics, epistemology, logic) = 44.7 jobs (9.55%)

= 44.7 jobs (9.55%) History = 43.3 jobs (9.25%)

= 43.3 jobs (9.25%) Social identity (race, gender, feminism, disability) = 18.5 jobs (4%)

18.5 jobs (4%) Non-western: 12.1 jobs (2.6%)

12.1 jobs (2.6%) Continental = 8 jobs (1.7%)

8 jobs (1.7%) Religion = 5 jobs (1%)

= 5 jobs (1%) Aesthetics = .5 jobs (0.1%)

Junior-level TT jobs advertised = 224

Value Theory = 76.8 jobs (34.3%)

= 76.8 jobs (34.3%) Open: 46 jobs (20.5%)

46 jobs (20.5%) History: 27.5 jobs (12.3%)

27.5 jobs (12.3%) Science (including cog. sci) = 24.5 jobs (10.9%)

= 24.5 jobs (10.9%) Core (mind, language, metaphysics, epistemology, logic) = 18.5 jobs (8.3%)

18.5 jobs (8.3%) Social identity (race, gender, feminism, disability, etc.) = 11.7 jobs (5.2%)

11.7 jobs (5.2%) Non-western: 11.6 jobs (5.2%)

11.6 jobs (5.2%) Continental: 7.75 jobs (3.5%)

7.75 jobs (3.5%) Religion: 1.25 jobs (0.6%)

Junior-level Non-TT jobs advertised = 244

Open = 87.6 jobs (35.9%)

87.6 jobs (35.9%) Value theory = 76.2 jobs (31.2%)

= 76.2 jobs (31.2%) Core (mind, language, metaphysics, epistemology, logic) =26.2 jobs (10.7%)

=26.2 jobs (10.7%) Science (including cog. sci) = 25.2 jobs (10.3%)

= 25.2 jobs (10.3%) History = 15.8 jobs (6.5%%)

= 15.8 jobs (6.5%%) Social identity = 7.25 jobs (3%)

= 7.25 jobs (3%) Religion = 5 jobs (2%)

5 jobs (2%) Aesthetics = .5 jobs (0.2%)

= .5 jobs (0.2%) Non-Western philosophy = .5 jobs (0.2%)

.5 jobs (0.2%) Continental = 0 jobs (0%)

To my eyes, these numbers look pretty similar to recent job seasons. First, the largest proportion of jobs continue to be Open AOS and Value Theory. It is particularly striking to me that each year I have data for this, over 1-in-3 jobs (both TT and non-TT) have been in value theory areas. This also appears to have been a banner year for biomedical ethics specifically, at least at the postdoc level (14.8 non-TT jobs and 5.6 TT jobs). There was also a noticable uptick in jobs having to do with A.I. and technology ethics. More generally, though, there was a pretty even distribution across applied ethics (29 TT jobs), ethics/ethical theory (25 TT jobs), and social-political-legal/PPE areas (21.4 TT jobs). One area notably lacking in advertisements this year, however, was metaethics (0.5 TT jobs by my tally). However, it is entirely possible that some jobs listed as 'Ethics' could go to metaethicists.

Second, 'Core' areas of analytic philosophy are still only 8-10% of jobs advertised, similar to 2017--though it may be that M&E types fare well when applying for 'Open' positions (which there were a lot of this year). It is particularly striking to me that given how many M&E grad students and job-marketeers there presumably are, I have only 5.8 TT jobs listed for Metaphysics and 4.9 for epistemology. Finally, for what it is worth, it also appeared to me that most (though not all) of the job advertisements in epistemology this year were in in social epistemology specifically.

Third, this appears to have been another fairly good year for jobs in Social Identity related areas (race, gender, ethnicity, disability, etc.). In 2017, I tallied 19.3 jobs in these areas (6.5 jobs in feminist philosophy and 12.8 jobs in philosophy of race). This year, there were 18.5 jobs (10.7 in philosophy of race, 5.2 jobs in feminism and gender studies, 2.5 open jobs, and 0.5 jobs in philosophy of disability). This also seems to have been a pretty good year for 'non-Western philosophy' (broadly construed), at least at the TT level (11.6 jobs), including several jobs in indigenous philosophy.

Finally, Philosophy of Science and History of Philosophy have held steady at around 10-12% of jobs apiece, with Philosophy of Science inching up a few percentage points compared to previous years. Given that philosophy of science and history of philosophy plausibly graduate fewer PhDs than some other areas, these numbers seem pretty strong to me. Cognitive science and A.I. areas also seemed to have a very good year (8 TT jobs and 10 nonTT jobs).