Job Openings in Higher Education Soar 36 Percent as Sector Continues to Outperform Economy

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Aug 17, 2010, 09:04 ET

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Higher education employment continues to follow stable growth patterns as overall U.S. employment recovered only slightly in the first half of 2010, according to a new report from HigherEdJobs, the leading resource for job openings in academia. From the first half of 2008 (the initial six-month period of the recession) to H1 2010, higher education employment grew 4.2 percent while the total number of U.S. jobs declined 5.6 percent, or about 7.7 million jobs. Job postings in academia jumped year-over-year almost 36 percent in H1 2010 after declining by almost an identical amount in 2009, suggesting colleges and universities are continuing to fine-tune how they staff positions in response to the fluctuating economy. (http://www.higheredjobs.com/link.cfm?q=2&y=2010&id=3)

One of the ways higher education had responded to the recession was by relying more on part-time employees starting in 2008. Data from early 2010, however, suggest the ratio of part-time to full-time openings may have peaked and could now be declining. Colleges and universities had also shifted their emphasis toward recruiting academic faculty and away from administrative and staff hires during the recession. That trend appears to be reversing as well. The ratio of administrative and staff postings increased during the first half of 2010, suggesting institutions may be bringing back these jobs that they elected to leave vacant during the recession.

The HigherEdJobs report also found that hiring at community colleges continues to be robust, possibly due, in part, to offering crucial training programs and curricula to retrain and re-educate workers for the new and emerging economy.

HigherEdJobs is the leading source for jobs and career information in academia. During 2009, over 2,600 colleges and universities posted 55,000 faculty, administrative and executive job postings to the company's website. HigherEdJobs is visited two million times each month by 750,000 unique visitors. HigherEdJobs is published by Internet Employment Linkage, Inc. which is headquartered in State College, PA, and has an accounting and operations office in Oak Park, IL.

To view the complete report, go to: http://www.higheredjobs.com/link.cfm?q=2&y=2010&id=3

www.higheredjobs.com

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SOURCE HigherEdJobs