Society for Classical Studies Placement Service Data and Analysis (2022-2024)
Introduction
This report details the past two academic years in the Society for Classical Studies (“SCS”) Placement Service with data from the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 Placement years.
We have exported data directly from the Placement Service portion of our website (classicalstudies.org/placement/placement-service), and most of it is self-reported by the candidates and hiring institutions that filled out their profiles and placed job ads. The data are incomplete in places, and fewer candidates have opted to provide self-reported data than in previous years. However, the data remain a helpful picture of hiring trends in Classics in the United States and Canada over the past two years.
You can use for personal analysis the data in the Excel documents that accompany this report. Confidential information has been removed, and some data analysis that requires the use of confidential information has been presented in this report, but the raw data are not supplied to the report’s audience.
Any and all questions, comments, and concerns about this report should be addressed to info@classicalstudies.org
The Advertisements
The past two academic years saw an increase in the number of tenure-track jobs advertised on the Placement Service. In particular, the 2023-2024 Placement Year had the highest percentage of tenure-track and tenured positions advertised since the 2011-12 Placement year.
A summary of the data on position rank and position type for 2022-23 and 2023-24 is included in the chart below:
| Position Rank | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant Professor | 52 | 66 |
| Associate Professor | 2 | 1 |
| Instructor | 7 | 6 |
| Lecturer | 12 | 11 |
| Open | 3 | 5 |
| Other | 32 | 26 |
| Professor | 4 | 7 |
| Visiting Assistant Professor | 26 | 23 |
| Visiting Professor | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 139 | 146 |
| Position Type | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Adjunct/Part-time | 5 | 5 |
| Non-Tenure-Track, more than 12 months (including Fellowships) | 38 | 18 |
| Non-Tenure-Track, up to and including 12 months | 38 | 50 |
| Open | 5 | 8 |
| Tenure-Track | 47 | 59 |
| Tenured / Senior | 6 | 6 |
| Total | 139 | 146 |
For an overview of the advertisement data, please see the section for each year below, and the accompanying data can be found in the Excel documents linked above.
2022-2023
There were 139 job advertisements on the Placement Service in 2022-23. These were placed by 116 institutions, departments, organizations, and programs. Most, but not all, jobs listed are placed by US or Canadian institutions. 58% of jobs placed on the Service this year were considered contingent, meaning they are classified by the hiring institution as non-tenure track, adjunct, or part-time positions. Most of these contingent positions (55% of total jobs posted) were classified as non-tenure track, evenly divided between those classified as “up to and including 12 months” (27% of total jobs posted) and those classified as “more than 12 months, including fellowships” (27% of total jobs posted). 4% of jobs were classified as “Open,” and these were editorial and administrative positions and some fellowships or open-rank positions. 38% of job ads were for tenured or tenure-track positions. As in previous years, there is no classification for non-tenure track positions that could turn into tenure-track positions.
2022-23 saw an increase in the percentage of tenure-track positions, and an overview of how the data compares to previous years can be found in the section below. In the year before (2021-22), non-tenure-track short-term positions, defined as up to and including 12 months, were the most common type of job advertised. This is no longer the case, and this year tenure-track positions were the most frequently advertised type of position.
2023-2024
There were 146 job advertisements on the Placement Service in 2023-24. These were placed by 114 institutions, departments, organizations, and programs. This is a slight increase compared to the 139 advertisements in 2022-23, as described in the section above. 50% of jobs placed on the Service this year were considered contingent, meaning they are classified by the hiring institution as non-tenure track, adjunct, or part-time positions. As in the previous year, most of these contingent positions were classified as non-tenure track (47% of all jobs posted). However, in 2023-2024, of these non-tenure track positions, only 12% of all jobs posted were classified as “more than 12 months, including fellowships” and 34% of all jobs posted were classified as “up to and including 12 months.” This is a substantial change from the previous year. 5% of jobs were classified as “Open,” and these were editorial and administrative positions and some fellowships or open-rank positions. 45% of job ads were for tenured or tenure-track positions.
For a comparison of the percentage of contingent positions and of tenured / tenure-track positions for the last several years, see the chart below:
| Placement Year | Total Job Ads | Contingent Positions (Percentage of Total) |
Tenured / Tenure-Track Positions (Percentage of Total) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-2017 | 146 | 62% | 32% |
| 2017-2018 | 145 | 57% | 36% |
| 2018-2019 | 149 | 62% | 32% |
| 2019-2020 | 135 | 54% | 40% |
| 2020-2021 | 91 | 71% | 22% |
| 2021-2022 | 144 | 67% | 28% |
| 2022-2023 | 139 | 58% | 38% |
| 2023-2024 | 146 | 50% | 45% |
Note: the percentages do not add up to 100% due to positions classified as “Open,” as described above.
As with the year prior, 2023-24 saw an increase in the percentage of tenure-track positions, and tenure-track positions were the most frequently advertised type of position. As in previous years, there is no classification for non-tenure track positions that could turn into tenure-track positions.
Tenure and Tenure-Track Positions Cumulative Data
The following chart and table plot the number and percentage of ads for tenured and tenure-track positions relative to total Placement Service job ad postings over time since 2003-04.
In the 2021-22 Placement Report, it was suggested that the percentage of tenured and tenure-track positions may continue to decrease. This has not been the case, as the past two years have shown an increase in tenure-track positions:
| Year | Total Job Ads | Tenured / Tenure-Track | Percentage Tenured / Tenure-track |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-04 | 166 | 99 | 60% |
| 2004-05 | 162 | 104 | 64% |
| 2005-06 | 197 | 111 | 56% |
| 2006-07 | 217 | 127 | 59% |
| 2007-08 | 221 | 132 | 60% |
| 2008-09 | 138 | 67 | 49% |
| 2009-10 | 142 | 54 | 38% |
| 2010-11 | 143 | 61 | 43% |
| 2011-12 | 155 | 71 | 46% |
| 2012-13 | 191 | 84 | 44% |
| 2013-14 | 191 | 76 | 40% |
| 2014-15 | 138 | 55 | 40% |
| 2015-16 | 140 | 42 | 30% |
| 2016-17 | 146 | 47 | 32% |
| 2017-18 | 145 | 52 | 36% |
| 2018-19 | 149 | 48 | 32% |
| 2019-20 | 135 | 54 | 40% |
| 2020-21 | 91 | 20 | 22% |
| 2021-22 | 144 | 40 | 28% |
| 2022-23 | 139 | 53 | 38% |
| 2023-24 | 146 | 65 | 45% |
Areas of Specialization Sought by Institutions
In both 2022-23 and 2023-24, the majority of hiring institutions input their own descriptions of job specialization areas, often with multiple areas listed. While this offers more clarity to job candidates, it makes it difficult to offer an overview of the job specialties sought by institutions over the past two years in comparison to previous years. However, the data for “Area(s) of Specialization” is included in the Excel document in the fifth tab of the spreadsheet.
The Candidates
In recent years, candidate data have become increasingly incomplete. The Placement Service has changed significantly in recent years: SCS no longer organizes interviews at the Annual Meeting and placement advertisements are now publicly available on the SCS website. As a result, candidates do not need to register to view or apply for the opportunities advertised on the Placement Service. However, signing up as a candidate does still provide the important benefits of email notifications of new job posts and the ability to upload a curriculum vitae to the SCS website that can be viewed by hiring institutions. All demographic data collection is opt-in for candidates.
Demographic information was collected via confidential candidate profiles on the SCS website. In 2022-23, 77 job candidates out of 225 subscribed candidates (34% of candidates) answered one or more optional demographic questions in their candidate profile. In 2023-24, 78 candidates out of 288 candidates (27% of candidates) added responses to one or more of the optional questions in their profiles. In an attempt to obtain supplemental demographic information, a placement survey was conducted at the end of the 2022-23 Placement year. However, the survey received only 12 responses, and not all responses answered every question.
While we have included candidate data in the accompanying Excel documents, which are linked to in the introduction of this report, we urge caution when analyzing the data due to the small percentage of individuals who provided responses over the last two years. With only 27% of registered candidates providing information this past year, and an unknown number of candidates choosing not to register, we believe that it is difficult to use the data to draw meaningful conclusions about the current state of the job market.
Going forward, it is clear that the SCS will need to develop new ways to encourage candidates to fill out their profiles or to explore new approaches to surveys, perhaps through collaboration with the Committee on Career Planning and Development and the Data Committee.
The Placement Service
As described in the 2021-2022 Placement Report, the Placement Service has significantly changed over the last twenty years. With job interviews no longer being held onsite at the Annual Meeting, the Placement Service has become a centralized place for job opportunities in the fields of classical studies and archaeology to be advertised. The Placement Service also maintains clear ethical standards and norms in academic hiring through the Placement Guidelines and the career resources hosted on the SCS website, and the Placement Service is the largest driver of traffic on the website.
This year, we are pleased to share that the Joint Committee on Career Planning and Development has reviewed and revised the Placement Service Guidelines and the Advice for Candidates. These documents describe the norms and expectations in the hiring process and serve as an important resource for both candidates and institutions. We encourage departmental representatives and candidates to review these revised documents.
As reported in the 2021-22 Report, there continues to be an issue of job ads that are submitted, either by hiring institutions or third-party services, that do not conform to the placement guidelines. SCS staff have been working with the institutions to ensure that, to the best of our knowledge, the advertisements are complete and accurate before they are published. Additionally, with the hope of notifying candidates of as many opportunities as possible, SCS staff have continued to post jobs with application windows shorter than those stated in our guidelines.
The 2022-2023 Placement Year ran from September 5, 2022 to July 5, 2023, but advertisements placed after July 1, 2022 were reposted into the 2022-2023 year, and those ads were included in this report for consistent data reporting. The 2023-2024 Placement Service ran from July 5, 2023 to July 1, 2024.
The 2024-2025 Placement Year began July 1, 2024, and the Service is currently accepting job ads with Fall 2024 deadlines.