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Assistant professor of english job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected assistant professor of english job growth rate is 12% from 2018-2028.
About 159,400 new jobs for assistant professors of english are projected over the next decade.
Assistant professor of english salaries have increased 8% for assistant professors of english in the last 5 years.
There are over 22,183 assistant professors of english currently employed in the United States.
There are 34,542 active assistant professor of english job openings in the US.
The average assistant professor of english salary is $57,540.
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22,183 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 24,581 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 25,768 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 25,931 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 26,227 | 0.01% |
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $57,540 | $27.66 | +0.7% |
| 2025 | $57,115 | $27.46 | +2.9% |
| 2024 | $55,530 | $26.70 | +2.6% |
| 2023 | $54,129 | $26.02 | +1.9% |
| 2022 | $53,145 | $25.55 | +2.8% |
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 119 | 17% |
| 2 | Vermont | 623,657 | 63 | 10% |
| 3 | West Virginia | 1,815,857 | 148 | 8% |
| 4 | Alaska | 739,795 | 58 | 8% |
| 5 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 407 | 7% |
| 6 | New York | 19,849,399 | 1,129 | 6% |
| 7 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 508 | 6% |
| 8 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 407 | 6% |
| 9 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 247 | 6% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 118 | 6% |
| 11 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 55 | 6% |
| 12 | Kentucky | 4,454,189 | 227 | 5% |
| 13 | Louisiana | 4,684,333 | 217 | 5% |
| 14 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 151 | 5% |
| 15 | Mississippi | 2,984,100 | 148 | 5% |
| 16 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 48 | 5% |
| 17 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 391 | 4% |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 229 | 4% |
| 19 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 52 | 4% |
| 20 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 42 | 4% |
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amherst | 1 | 3% | $66,765 |
| 2 | Coral Gables | 1 | 2% | $51,133 |
| 3 | Middletown | 1 | 2% | $73,910 |
| 4 | Washington | 10 | 1% | $73,586 |
| 5 | Boulder | 1 | 1% | $50,306 |
| 6 | Portland | 1 | 1% | $58,532 |
Kean University
University of Oregon
Kean University
North Carolina State University
The University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Arizona
College of the Marshall Islands
Skidmore College
Ashford University
Saint Mary's University Of Minnesota
University of South Florida

University of Texas at Austin

Hanover College

Louisiana State University

Concordia University
Southwestern College
Pennsylvania State University Altoona
University of California, Santa Barbara
Alex Holte PhD: When you are starting out at any career, it is important to negotiate your salary. Many candidates feel that they have to accept their first offer, but in reality, at many jobs, there is some room for negotiation. Be mindful however, to not request a salary that is much higher than what is being offered as they may feel like a compromise would not be possible and move on to the next candidate.
Mia Fiore Ph.D.: First, I would tell all students that it is VERY different from teaching k-12. Unlike K-12, you are not placed in a school with a teaching job upon graduation; teaching in higher education is one of the most competitive fields, period. The next difference is that you are expected to be an expert/ master of your field. If you're also willing to accept that you will likely have to work as an adjunct professor (for low pay) first, then go for it! Teaching in higher education is the most rewarding job, especially for people who love learning.
Mia Fiore Ph.D.: Awareness and familiarity with technology has become more important, and it will continue to be more important in the next 3-5 years. With everything from peer-reviewed journals available online, to AI, technology is an important part of higher education.
Mia Fiore Ph.D.: Maximize your salary potential by teaching at a state school- if you do you can join the PSLF program and after ten years, your student loans will be forgiven.
University of Oregon
English Language And Literature
Mary Wood: It depends on what level the teacher is at (college level or K-12 and if K-12 do you mean elementary, middle, or high school), whether they're in public or private education, etc. Those who wish to become K-12 English teachers would take some literature classes in our department but would do most of their teacher training in the School of Education.
Mary Wood: It's a great time to become an English teacher because it's more important than ever for students to be savvy about how language works, given the ways that language is being manipulated in media (including social media) as well as in the explosion of AI applications. It's also a good time to remind students of the human values and age-old questions about life that are found in novels, plays, poetry, and short stories.
Mary Wood: Dislike: Administrative meetings, Grading papers, Bureaucratic paperwork, Lack of robust funding for research and teaching. Like: Working with students, Talking, writing, and reading about literature and getting paid for it, My co-workers and their commitment to their students, Having flexibility in my workday (available to college teachers, not K-12)
Dr. Lisa Sisler D.Litt, MFA: Regardless of the level the educator is at (high school/ college), most of the day is spent in the classroom teaching. There is prep for each class: lesson planning, reading, researching. Then there is the grading of papers. We also spend a lot of time mentoring and advising students, working one-on-one with students to help them achieve both class goals and their personal goals.
Dr. Lisa Sisler D.Litt, MFA: After Covid, many teachers left the profession so the profession needs teachers. As well, with a return to in-person learning we have noticed significant gaps in learning. And with the emergence of AI Writing tools, a strong foundation in reading and writing is critical.
Dr. Lisa Sisler D.Litt, MFA: I would say, personally, the best part of being an English educator is being in the classroom, working with the students. There's a kind of magic that happens in that space-- a shared space of ideas and literature and writing-- nothing beats that. The hardest part about being an English educator is the grading-- finding the time to get it done is often difficult, especially with all the meetings and other responsibilities that pile up throughout the semester. Though reading the students' work is often enlightening and gratifying.
Jane Kuandre: Some essential skills for success in academia include critical thinking, effective communication, time management, and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Romance Languages, Literatures, And Linguistics
Senior Lecturer Isabelle Hall Program coordinator: Teaching has to be a passion. The interaction with the students is extremely rewarding. The quality of the team of professors we work along with is essential to everyone's well-being in the department. In my case, I have extraordinary colleagues and leadership. The paycheck is lower than other positions with similar degrees. We often work 6 days a week (especially at the beginning) and we usually work in the summer to prep, do research, take students abroad, participate in conferences ...
Dr. Dennis Wise Professor Practice: It's an extremely challenging moment to be entering the profession. Since 2008, state legislatures have been cutting back funding for higher education, and that has hurt English Departments because courses that require writing instruction (as our do) can't be run at ultra-large, 200-students a class levels. That has limited the willingness of administrations to hire tenure-track faculty, and has contributed to a proliferation of contingent (or year-to-year) labor. In addition, graduate programs across the country tend to significantly over-produce doctoral students, graduating far more each year than the job market can handle. All this goes to make the job prospects of anyone fresh out of graduate school relatively bleak. Many are forced into adjuncting, more and more of the former professoriate are becoming adjuncts.
Dr. Dennis Wise Professor Practice: The major benefit of the profession is flexibility of hours. Even for someone contracted for 40 hours a week of teaching, only about 12-15 of those hours are spent in the classroom – the grading and lesson prepping one can do anytime, anywhere. Likewise, working with the students is often increasingly rewarding. At the same time, burn-out from overwork and increasingly poor labor conditions is increasingly common, and our profession receives very poor compensation given the level of education professors are required to have.
Dr. Dennis Wise Professor Practice: The basic requirements on the profession are teaching, research, and service (whether service to the department, the university, or the field), in that order, but also job duties depend on the type of institution. In community colleges, your focus is almost exclusively on teaching, and at research universities, tenure-track faculty often have 40/40/20 workloads (i.e., 40% teaching, 40% research, and 20% service). However, even within institutions, there are different ranks of professors. at my institution, tenure-track faculty have the 40/40/20 workload that I described, but career-track faculty generally have a 80/20 workload – 80% teaching, 20% service. Below this rank are adjuncts. Adjuncts are paid on a per-course basis, and they're roughly equivalent to minimum wage McDonald's workers despite the quality of teaching work they do. They are not benefits eligible. Teaching encompasses not only classroom time, which is actually only a small proportion of the job, but class prep, office hours, conferencing with students, and grading (especially grading). It's also common to keep up with professional trainings. Research in an English Department requires that you publish with peer-reviewed journals and publish books with university presses. It also includes presenting at conferences. Service can encompass anything from serving on committees, directing thesis students, working in academic publishing (which is unpaid), and anything else.
Alexander Velasquez: I think everyone should look into their career fields and find out what it is that makes you more valuable in that field. Are there any certifications that you can get? What is it that you need to know or learn that companies will find valuable? Much can be learned online, so pick up as many of those skills as you can, and make sure they're on your resume or CV. I believe all those things could maximize salary potential, especially when starting out.
Skidmore College
Romance Languages, Literatures, And Linguistics
Aurelie Matheron: Leadership: you will be in positions of leading a program/department. Learn from current chairs by observing their own skills during meetings and moments of decision. Collaboration: develop interpersonal and interprofessional relationships that will allow you to build collaborative projects (interdepartmental courses, for instance).
Aurelie Matheron: Do some research online about how much someone earns at your stage of the career. If there is a significant gap, point out (diplomatically) that, because of your extensive experience in XYZ, you would like to get a X% increase in your salary. Be reasonable: if you want a 3% increase, ask for 5% (not 10% or more). Justify your negotiation: why should they pay me more? What experience can I show them to justify my request? If you have a higher offer from another place, you can say that “I have received another generous offer and would like to know about the possibility for matching that offer.” Salary is not the only thing you can negotiate: office space, computer/laptop, sabbaticals, course release, etc. Again, be reasonable: if you think you are entitled to XYZ requests, you also have to show why.
Ashford University
History
Fabio Lanza: I tell them not to expect that they can achieve the same, old-style academic career (like mine, for example). A tenure-track job in a research university to be clear. Those jobs exist but they are becoming rarer and rarer. I also tell them that if they forecast incurring in serious (or even non-serious) debt in order to get a PhD, they should not do it. They should not pursue that path at all. In the program, they should take all the chances they have to learn new skills, including skills that don't seem directly related to an academic career.
Fabio Lanza: To put it bluntly, if you want to make money, this is really not the career for you.
Fabio Lanza: Difficult to say, given how quickly things change. Digital humanities was and still is fashionable and important. Public history (museum, exhibitions, outreach). And teaching.
Saint Mary's University Of Minnesota
Online Learning Product Development
Carrie Wandler: Effective communication both in-person and across a wide variety of platforms (in the Learning Management System, via email, via social media, via Zoom); cultural fluency; creative and critical thinking; ethical decision-making; emotional intelligence; empathy.
Lee Braver: Colleges and universities fall into different categories which value different skills and accomplishments. The most obvious division is between schools that emphasize research and those that pride themselves on their teaching. Research institutions are looking for scholars who can publish a lot in exclusive journals and presses, thereby enhancing their reputation. They are looking for evidence of research skills: publications, awards, letters of recommendation that praise the candidate's writing and thinking. Teaching schools, on the other hand, are looking for excellent teachers. In the buyer's market we now have, they can require high research ability as well, but some will actually be scared off by too much research. They will worry that the candidate will focus on their research instead of their teaching and that they will seek to leave as soon as they can. These schools are typically looking for teaching experience, high student evaluations, and letters that single out these qualities for praise, whereas research schools typically don't care a lot about these sorts of things. Thus, the qualities one type of institution values, the other can be apathetic towards or even avoid. Teaching schools far outnumber research schools, so there are far more jobs in the former than in the latter.
Lee Braver: Soft skills are most important to working once one has gotten a job rather than important to getting a job since those are quite difficult to discern from applications and brief interviews. That is one of the reasons schools can be wary of hiring with tenure; a person could look great on paper but be a nightmare to work with, and you're stuck with them.
I believe that tenacity, organizational skills and time management, and the ability to work long hours are crucial to getting tenure and succeeding in academia more broadly, in some ways more important than raw intelligence (if such a notion is coherent). Failure and rejection are endemic to the job; anyone who gets discouraged easily will do so. One must persevere in the face of sometimes harsh criticism and hostile conditions (especially now that much of the country has turned against higher education and the humanities in particular), and one must be able to juggle multiple responsibilities that make considerable time demands. In this, the tenure track resembles other early-career positions, such as medical residency or working towards partnership in a law firm. The untenured often must do the scut work that no one else wants to do, made more difficult by the fact that they are frantically trying to learn on the job with little to no guidance. It is not at all unusual for early-career professors to teach 4 classes per semester, at least some of which are new and/or large, do all the grading for them, serve on multiple committees, and write for elusive publications, all at once.
Lee Braver: Well, a Ph.D. is necessary, although one can sometimes be hired within striking distance of it. The ability to teach so as to bring students to the major and get high student evaluations are often requirements at teaching schools while writing well enough to publish, often in journals with single-digit acceptance rates, is crucial to research schools. Comfort with technology is becoming more and more important.
Lee Braver: Let's see-an M.B.A., the ability to pick winning lottery numbers, being repelled by the humanities so that one goes into business-those would be pretty useful for making money. No one should go into academia for the money, not just not for wealth but even for a comfortable living, which is becoming more difficult to achieve in America in general. It is nearly impossible to make a living as an adjunct professor, which is where the profession is heading. There are many good-paying jobs, but those tend to congregate at the elite schools, the ones that emphasize research the most, and these are the fewest and hardest to get. Worse-paying jobs are also hard to come by, and the competition is just getting stiffer as more Ph.D.'s get dumped into the market each year which is itself accreting all those who did not land jobs in the previous years. At many institutions, raises are minimal since jobs are so hard to come by, and there's little else that rewards a humanities Ph.D. The only way to get a substantial raise is to get a credible offer from another institution and hope that yours wants to keep you enough to overbid them; otherwise, you're stuck, especially after getting tenure, and they know it. That's why tenure is called "golden handcuffs," though I think a better name might be something like velvet handcuffs, given gold's connotation of wealth.

James Pennebaker: Most jobs require a basic understanding of statistics. Even the basic working of Excel and spreadsheets is invaluable. The more you know about database management, PowerPoint, graphing, the business uses of social media, apps, and web design, the better. If you are still in school, consider researching with a faculty member to learn more about some of these issues. Also, take courses in other departments that really interest you, and that may provide skills that might help you in the kinds of jobs you might like to have. Try to find an internship or part-time job to learn more about the kinds of skills you lack and can learn.

Hanover College
Department of Modern Languages
Alejandra Rodriguez-Villar Ph.D.: If we focus on the future, we are observing a merging between the sciences and the humanities. We are experiencing the rise of what C.P. Snow called "the third culture." And it makes sense because, with our current ability to process extensive amounts of information, we are opening doors to study history and the past in many disciplines from a more holistic perspective. People in the humanities and the sciences are getting closer in methodologies, technologies, and languages. Anybody wanting to have a flourishing career will need to have an interdisciplinary education that will enable them to cross-disciplinary boundaries. While scientists are getting more acquainted with disciplines like philosophy or literature (for instance, narrative medicine), humanists need to become familiar with statistics, coding, or cognitive sciences. With the rise of automation, humans who can see the whole picture will be more necessary than ever.
Alejandra Rodriguez-Villar Ph.D.: Something that stands out in any resume is the ability to speak two or more languages. If we are thinking of medievalists and early modern professionals, having a good command of romance languages and other European languages will be a great asset without any type of doubt. In any case, for anybody interested in history, it is critical to know the languages spoken in the studied space and those in the surrounding areas as an excellent way to understand and monitor mutual influences. Likewise, grads with a major in medieval, early modern, or general history, will have more opportunities in the job market if they show imagination and creativity as skills in their resumes. Unfortunately, we can only travel in time with our minds; being able to supply with our imagination and creativity what we cannot see presently is extremely important for a good historian. We often count on scarce, disconnected pieces of information, and having the necessary imagination to sense the possible connections is essential to develop a meticulous methodology to support our research findings. Talking about methods, if it is true that we need to be very imaginative to set the first steps to reconstruct history, we also need to be very systematic to produce a rigorous vision that we can call history and not fiction!
Alejandra Rodriguez-Villar Ph.D.: As professionals with expertise in the past, our best contribution is to help people see history from a non-presentist point of view. Presentism tends to judge history with our present values and morals, which highly prevents us from understanding the studied period itself. While this type of judgment is debunked at a synchronic level -we don't apply our values spatially- we still see examples of this perspective diachronically applied when comparing different periods to ours. Judging history this way is unfair to the period we are analyzing. It can also lead us to dismiss significant advancements as just backward attitudes because, of course, everything that happened before us will look "obsolete" to our eyes. Although we can see a particular event in history as something negative according to our standards, it could have represented a major step ahead for the world at that moment. So, for professionals who deal with previous ages, connecting humans across time and not only across space is a priceless skill nowadays. With the vast increase in scholarship on the past, we will need more professionals able to transport people from one period to the other and help them understand its importance in the whole picture of a specific human group or the whole of humankind. This is what will allow us to value our present correctly. The most precious soft skill for everyone is often to try to understand before judging. Connectors are a great source of creativity and growth.

Louisiana State University
English Department
Jonathan Osborne Ph.D.: Writing instructors must know how to use multiple computer programs proficiently and at times use them simultaneously. Long gone are the days where all you needed to know were the basics of Microsoft Word and Excel. In addition to the learning platform used by the university (Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom, etc.), writing instructors must know how to use Zoom or other online video conference platforms to ensure smooth experiences for students who cannot come to the physical classroom.

John Norton Ph.D.: A need to communicate clearly and creatively through different medium
John Rieder: I can only speak to the California community colleges, but we have seen a dramatic drop in enrollments this year, particularly this current spring. I believe as a system, the CCCs are down 10% compared to a year ago. My campus is a couple of points worse than that. This has impacted the English job market significantly. Ours is a field in which our fulltime faculty hires always come from the adjunct/part-time ranks in the region. Right now, with the drop in enrollment and a compression of offerings, it was very hard for any instructors with newly minted M.A.s to get a foot in the door. Several newer part-time instructors (hired in the last couple of years) who managed to secure an assignment in Fall 2019 did not get an offer for the current spring, which is lighter in terms of total sections offered. Obviously, another trend is the necessity of distance-education training. Every college district in my region is handling this a bit differently. My college is particularly strict; those who want a fully online/asynchronous teaching assignment must complete our in-house certification. Some other campuses do accept DE training completed elsewhere. As far as fulltime, tenure-track positions go, we have been fortunate to recruit four new fulltime faculty members since 2019, and we will likely be able to recruit one more in a year who would begin in Fall 2022. Since the short-term economic outlook is going to be okay, our district has committed to replacing all faculty who retire this year.
Roselyn Costantino Ph.D.: Most important advice: Take initiative and be productive.
Find practical ways to use skills even if unpaid. Volunteer work is good. Use language skills. Technology skills. Exploit technology skills around the area of interest. If you want to be a teacher find out what software they are using today; what research skills are they utilize. Make sure you log your activities during the gap year especially those that relate to the area in which you want to work. If you want to go into finance, and you're working at a lawn service, understand and learn the business model and the accounting. If you're working at Starbucks (or in any commercial environment), get a chance to do inventories, learn about the ordering process and sources and suppliers for those orders; and how people are scheduled for work. All of that is relevant experience for business.
The CFO and recruiter for Keystone Staffing Solutions emphasized having evidence in your resume of of being productive during the gap time, no matter if it's one, two or three years. Evidence of being productive is what recruiters want to see on your resume: He stresses: "What did you do to expand your knowledge and skills not only in your selected area but beyond. BEING PRODUCTIVE for yourself proves to be an indicator of how productive you will be for me."
Still on gap year. How to go about it? Use teachers, friends, family, anyone in the field or related to it to provide guidance, insight, suggestions. This can lead to projects or experience that will help in learning and growth.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Psychological & Brain Sciences
Spencer Mermelstein: I first note that Psychology is a very versatile undergraduate degree. With a Bachelor's you can pursue a career within the field of Psychology (such as academic research, clinical, or applied) or in many different fields from education to business to healthcare to computer science and more. I think employers do value Psychology students' knowledge of human behavior, and they especially value the research skills and statistical literacy that are core to the science.
The effects of the COVID pandemic on the job market might depend then on what industry one is looking to join. Nonetheless, I have seen a few general trends from my point of view as a soon-to-graduate PhD candidate in an experimental psychology program. First, there was a major surge this year in applications to graduate school programs including PhD programs. As in past economic downturns, it seems like the relative current scarcity of jobs and other opportunities increases the demand for graduate education. In turn, this made graduate programs potentially a bit more selective given the greater number of applications. It will be interesting to see the next application cycle for grad school as the economy recovers.
At the other end of grad school, current PhD students seeking tenure track professorships in academic research are facing a very tough job market. Even before the pandemic, there were relatively few jobs for the number of new doctorates, but the pandemic has exacerbated the problem. Funding and hiring freezes at colleges and universities are likely to shrink the number of new professorships even further. I think we are going to see new PhDs increasingly consider careers outside of academia, where their research and data analysis skills can be put to use in fields like User Experience or Data Science.
I think these concerns are specific to my particular field of academic research at the moment, as I believe clinical psychology and applied psychology job opportunities will continue to grow for those with Bachelor's and graduate degrees.