Higher Education Advertised Job Openings Up 64 Percent in Third Quarter

The number of advertised job openings in higher education soared in the third quarter of 2010, according to a newly released report from HigherEdJobs, the leading resource for job openings in academia. Job postings at colleges and universities rose 64.3 percent compared to the same period one year ago.

According to the report, which examined job posting data from a group of 700 U.S. colleges and universities on the company’s unlimited job posting plan, higher education job postings were up in every region of the U.S. The biggest winner was the West Pacific area (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington) followed by New England. The West South Central area (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) had the smallest increase.

In addition, the report found that reliance on part-time employees in higher education — as manifested by increases in part-time job postings during the recession — may now be moderating as the year draws to an end and the economy begins to recover. Similarly, colleges and universities, which had focused more on faculty hires during the peak of the recession, now appear to be shifting their hiring toward administrators and executives, at least temporarily.

Community colleges also had good news on the hiring front. Job postings at community colleges were up 42.0 percent compared to last year. While not as sharp an increase as the industry overall, it was much better news than the year before when job postings at community colleges were down 29.6 percent.

The report also examined data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that employment in higher education increased 2.9 percent over last year, translating to an increase of over 65,000 jobs. That’s comparable to creating several major research institutions in one year.