Higher Education Employment Report

Transcription

1 Higher Education Employment Report Second Quarter 2015 / Published August 2015 Executive Summary For the second year in a row, the number of jobs in higher education declined during the second quarter, decreasing 0.34 percent in When the recent higher education jobs data from governmental sources are adjusted to the 2015 academic spring semester, the decline in higher education jobs appears to concur with widely reported information regarding the recent drops in student enrollment as collected by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, based in Herndon, Virginia. In addition, the "market share" of higher education jobs compared to all U.S. jobs continued to decline in 2015, due to a relatively strong U.S. employment economy and decreasing higher education employment. For the same period, the number of advertisements for job postings in academia continued to increase in 2015, and at a faster pace from a year ago. And, for the first time in three years, second quarter job postings for full-time higher education jobs outpaced the increase of postings for part-time positions in Furthermore, job postings for full-time faculty grew at a much faster pace than one year ago, but job postings for part-time faculty also increased. As of the second quarter of 2015, analyses of U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on higher education employment as well as job posting trends with HigherEdJobs found: The number of jobs in higher education continued to decline in 2015, which appears to be consistent with reported decreases in student enrollment during the spring semester. Within an environment of decreasing higher education jobs, the number of advertisements for job openings continued to trend upward in The ratio of faculty to administrative and executive postings continued to decline in 2015, and at a consistent rate of decline. Job postings for both full-time and part-time faculty grew at a faster rate in 2015 compared to last year. At the same time, job postings for part-time administrative positions grew at a slower rate, while postings for full-time administrative positions grew at a faster rate. The number of advertised job openings at community colleges continued to increase in 2015 but at a slower rate than in previous years. Meanwhile, the actual number of jobs at community colleges continued to decline, also at a diminishing rate. In a departure from recent trends, full-time job postings grew at a faster rate than part-time postings in The Northeast region experienced the largest percentage increase in higher education job postings in 2015, driven by the Middle Atlantic, which only consists of three states. John Ikenberry, Ph.D., President and Co-Founder HigherEdJobs 328 Innovation Boulevard, Suite 235 State College, PA media@higheredjobs.com (ext. 202) 2015 HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 1

2 About HigherEdJobs About this Report HigherEdJobs is the leading source for jobs and career information in academia. The company s web site, receives more than 1,000,000 unique visitors a month. During 2014, more than 5,300 colleges and universities posted 159,000 faculty, administrative, and executive job postings to HigherEdJobs. Founded in 1996, HigherEdJobs mission is to help higher education candidates and employers connect with one another to find their dream job, or employee, as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort. HigherEdJobs is published by Internet Employment Linkage, Inc. (IEL). IEL is headquartered in State College, Pa., and has an accounting and operations office in Oak Park, Ill. The HigherEdJobs Higher Education Employment Report, published quarterly, provides summary information about employment within the higher education community. The goal of the report is to help academic leaders and policymakers better appreciate the trends we are experiencing with employment in real time. Those seeking jobs should also appreciate these same data. As background to some of the statistics we are reporting here, we define Higher Education Employment to include all types of employment at four-year colleges and universities as well as two-year community colleges. Findings on jobs in higher education and the U.S. economy are based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Except where indicated otherwise, findings on advertised job postings in higher education are based on posting data from U.S. colleges and universities that have been continually subscribed to the HigherEdJobs unlimited posting plan since January 2011, a cohort of roughly 890 institutions. Each of the institutions included in this report has paid a flat fee for unlimited advertising and, consequently, has no financial deterrent to discourage it from posting any job opening on HigherEdJobs. The Higher Education Employment Report is produced by HigherEdJobs with critical analysis and expertise provided by Bruce Steinberg ( an independent employment researcher HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 2

3 Finding: The number of jobs in higher education continued to decline in 2015, which appears to be consistent with reported decreases in student enrollment during the spring semester. Higher Education Jobs Compared to All U.S. Jobs (Monthly) Source: HigherEdJobs, based on U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which are subject to revisions. (Note: Yellow markers are December data and presented for ease of year-over-year comparison.) After several consecutive second quarters of decelerating or weak growth in the number of higher education jobs, 2015 marked the second consecutive second-quarter decline with a net loss of 0.3 percent, or about 6,000 jobs. The trend with higher education jobs appears to track the general trend with higher education enrollment, but enrollment appears to change at a greater rate than jobs. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, based in Herndon, Virginia, spring 2015 enrollment declined 1.9 percent. Adjusting the data to the academic spring semester (January through May), BLS higher education jobs as calculated by HigherEdJobs declined 0.31 percent in The ratio of higher education jobs compared to overall U.S. jobs, or market share, continued to wane in Although the number of higher education jobs declined, the major basis of this trend is simply that the overall U.S. job market has Year-over-year percent change in: Higher education jobs Total overall non-farm jobs Higher education jobs as percent of all jobs Year Annual Annual Source: HigherEdJobs analysis of U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics data. continued to improve and grow at a faster pace than the higher education job market. So, higher education s share of total U.S. employment ticked downward. An additional analysis of BLS data shows that four-year colleges and universities lost 2,200 jobs, or a 0.1 percent decline. Meanwhile, the community college sector, at less than 4.0 percent of the size of four-year institutions in terms of employment, lost 3,800 jobs, or 5.4 percent of its workforce, in (Community college employment trends discussed in further detail on page eight.) The federal government does not measure higher education employment or jobs per se. The term as used in this report is the combination of two NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) sectors: Junior Colleges (NAICS ), and Colleges and Universities (NAICS ). The data are reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 3

4 Finding: Within an environment of decreasing higher education jobs, the number of advertisements for job openings continued to trend upward in HigherEdJobs' Postings Compared to All Higher Education Jobs Sources: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers; higher education jobs based upon HigherEdJobs analysis of U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The number of advertised job openings in academia grew 21.9 percent from 2014 to 2015, which was an accelerated rate from the 11.2 percent growth observed the prior year (from 2013 to 2014). Clearly, the trends occurring with the number of higher education jobs and higher education job postings are contrary to one another. The job posting data are based on the total number of postings for open positions at colleges and universities continually subscribed to HigherEdJobs unlimited posting plan for four years or more (a cohort of roughly 890 institutions). Year HigherEdJobs postings Annual Year-over-year change (in percent) HigherEdJobs postings Total Higher Education Jobs Annual Total Higher Education Jobs As suggested in previous reports, the divergence in trends could be a sign that institutions are experiencing, and subsequently addressing, higher overall employee turnover. If institutions Sources: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers; Higher education jobs based on HigherEdJobs analysis of are losing an increasing number of employees to U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics data. either retirement, other institutions, or for positions outside of academia, that may help explain why job advertisements for higher education professionals are up but employment is down. The blue bars (June data highlighted in yellow for ease of year-over-year comparisons) in the chart above signify monthly job openings posted to HigherEdJobs by U.S. colleges and universities that have continuously subscribed to the company s unlimited posting plan since Jan. 1, 2011 (roughly equating to the retail sector s reporting of annual changes of same-store sales ) HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 4

5 Finding: The ratio of faculty to administrative and executive postings continued to decline in 2015, and at a consistent rate of decline. Faculty Job Postings compared to and Executive Job Postings Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers. The ratio of faculty job postings to administrative and executive job postings continued to decline in 2015 and by a surprisingly consistent amount, a trend observed in past examinations of this data. From 2014 to 2015, the ratio of postings for faculty versus administrative or executive positions decreased 1.0 percentage point, from 26.0 percent to 25.0 percent. This follows a 1.1 percent decline from 2013 to 2014, a 0.5 percent decline from 2012 to 2013, and a 1.3 percent decline from 2011 to The consistent decline in the portion of job postings for second quarter faculty positions in the past few years may indicate a diminishing need to fill vacant faculty positions or to create new ones, which may be a result of declining enrollments. While the ratio of job postings for faculty decreased in 2015, the actual number of faculty job postings increased 17.4 percent. This was 7.1 percentage points higher than the 10.3 percent increase in the immediate preceding quarter of Q The same pattern, but with higher rates of growth, occurred for administrative and executive job postings. In 2015, they rose 23.5 percent. This was 7.8 percentage points higher than the 15.7 percent increase in Q Year Faculty Positions Quarter Two Percent of job postings that were: and Executive Positions Faculty Positions Annual and Executive Positions The fairly consistent rate of increase for faculty as well as for administrative and executive positions (7.1 and 7.8 percentage points, respectively) could indicate higher education administrators have a Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers. good handle on current and future staffing requirements as their advertisements for open positions, regardless if for faculty or non-faculty, have been relatively stable. Note: No distinction is made between tenure track and non-tenure track faculty positions. and executive positions cover a wide variety of jobs including academic VPs, provosts, deans, IT managers, network administrators, fundraisers, administrative assistants, counselors, comptrollers, etc HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 5

6 Finding: In a departure from recent trends, full-time job postings grew at a faster rate than part-time postings in Average Percentage of Part-Time Postings Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers. During 2015, the number of job postings for full-time positions grew at a faster rate than the increase in job postings for part-time positions. The last time growth in full-time postings outpaced growth in part-time postings during the second quarter was in As a result, the ratio of part-time to full-time job postings declined in 2015, the Average percentage of part-time postings first time this metric decreased during the second quarter since Job postings for full-time and part-time positions were both up substantially during Job postings for full-time positions increased 22.1 percent while job postings for part-time positions increased 20.6 percent. In 2013 and Q , job postings for full-time positions increased 11.9 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, while job postings for part-time positions expanded by 17.1 percent and 24.2 percent, respectively. The ratio of part-time to full-time job postings declined by 0.3 percentage points from 2014 to 2015, decreasing from 18.4 percent to 18.1 percent. The last time this metric experienced a second quarter decline was in 2012, when it dropped 2.5 percentage points (from 17.0 percent in 2011 to 15.5 percent in 2012) Change in number of part-time job postings (in percent) Change in number of full-time job postings (in percent) Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 6

7 Finding: Job postings for both full-time and part-time faculty grew at a faster rate in 2015 compared to last year. At the same time, job postings for part-time administrative positions grew at a slower rate, while postings for full-time administrative positions grew at a faster rate. Portion of Job Postings that are Part-Time Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers. Job postings for full-time faculty positions increased in 2015, a welcome change for many faculty job seekers. Meanwhile, postings for part-time faculty positions also expanded at a greater rate in 2015 than the year before. Job postings for full-time administrative job postings grew in 2015 at roughly twice the rate of increase than the year before. In contrast, parttime administrative positions continued to increase in 2015 but at a much slower rate than the year before. Detail of Full-Time Compared to Part-Time Jobs Postings (in percent) Year Change in Full-Time Faculty Postings (Annual) Annual Change in Full-Time Faculty Postings Annual Change in Part-Time Faculty Postings Ratio of Faculty Postings for Part-Time Year Change in Full-Time Postings (Annual) Annual Change in Full-Time Postings Annual Change in Part-Time Postings Ratio of Postings for Part-Time Full-time faculty job postings rose in 2015 by 13.5 percent, a significant change compared to the incremental 0.4 percent decline observed in Yet, full-time faculty job postings were still outpaced by increases in part-time faculty job postings, which surged 24.7 percent in The ratio of part-time to full-time faculty postings continued to increase during 2015, but by the smallest second quarter percentage gain since at Source: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers. least 2012, increasing 2.1 percentage points compared to a 4.6 percentage point jump the year before. While the number of job postings for full-time administrative positions increased 25.0 percent in 2015, growth for part-time administrative job postings expanded at a much slower rate. In 2015, postings for part-time administrative positions increased only 15.1 percent, compared to a 26.2 percentage increase in HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 7

8 Finding: The number of advertised job openings at community colleges continued to increase in 2015 but at a slower rate than in previous years. Meanwhile, the actual number of jobs at community colleges continued to decline, also at a diminishing rate. Job Postings and Employment at Community Colleges Sources: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers; U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of job postings for open positions at community colleges continued to increase in 2015 but at a lower rate of growth. Meanwhile, the number of jobs at community colleges continued to decrease compared to previous second quarters, but the rate of decline continued to lessen. Specifically, the year-over-year decline in the number of community college jobs in 2015 was the smallest second quarter decrease since the declining trend began in mid Advertisements for job openings at community colleges increased 9.2 percent in 2015, a slower rate of growth than the 15.1 percent growth observed in 2014 as well as the 18.4 percent increase seen in Year-over-year change (in percent) During the same period, the number of jobs at community colleges decreased 5.4 percent compared to the same period the year before. This marks the fourth year in a row that community college employment has declined during the second Sources: HigherEdJobs posting data from continuing unlimited posting subscribers; community college jobs quarter, although the rate of decrease seems to be getting less from Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics. severe each year. The number of jobs at community colleges dropped 11.5 percent in 2012, 10.4 percent in 2013 and 8.1 percent in As noted in previous reports, the waning declines in community college employment support the notion that staffing levels at community colleges are becoming more stable. Community college administrators may not be trying to fundamentally adjust their staffing levels since the declines are diminishing and relatively minor while job postings at community colleges continue to increase but at slower rates of growth. Year Community College Job Postings (HigherEdJobs) Community College Jobs (BLS) Note: Even though most two-year institutions now designate themselves as Community Colleges, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics still categorizes these institutions as Junior Colleges. To avoid confusion, Junior Colleges are referred to as Community Colleges in this finding. The red markers, and right-hand scale, indicate Community College jobs HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 8

9 Finding: The Northeast region experienced the largest percentage increase in higher education job postings in 2015, driven by the Middle Atlantic, which only consists of three states. Change in Higher Education Job Postings by Census Region and Division 2014 to 2015 Source: HigherEdJobs job postings from unlimited posting subscribers in 2014 and During the second quarter of 2015, the Northeast region increased 25.4 percent in the number of higher education job postings, followed closely by the South region, which grew by 23.5 percent. In addition, the East South Central area, which is part of the South region, experienced the greatest growth with a gain of 43.4 percent. Past examinations of the geographic job posting trends have not seen great variations between regions and between divisions. However, in 2015, the change in job postings varied from a 2.4 percent decline in the East North Central area (which is part of the Midwest region that experienced only a 1.0 percent increase) to the previously mentioned growth of 43.4 percent in the East South Central. Region percent change in 2015 Division percent change in 2015 WEST 16.1 Pacific 11.3 Mountain 23.3 MIDWEST 1.0 West North Central 13.3 East North Central -2.4 SOUTH 23.5 West South Central 17.0 East South Central 43.4 South Atlantic 22.8 NORTHEAST 25.4 Middle Atlantic 33.6 New England 13.7 Source: HigherEdJobs job postings from unlimited posting subscribers in 2014 and Nationally, this 2015 cohort, which includes subscribers to HigherEdJobs Unlimited Posting Plan for the past 12 months, experienced an 18.3 percent rate of growth for all types of higher education job postings. Note: The regions and divisions used for this analysis are consistent with the official U.S. Census regions and divisions. ( HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT REPORT 9

10 Higher Education Employment Report Second Quarter 2015 / Published August 2015 For more information, contact: John Ikenberry, Ph.D. President and Co-Founder HigherEdJobs 328 Innovation Boulevard, Suite 235 State College, PA media@higheredjobs.com (ext. 202) Published by