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Job outlook for assistant professors of philosophy in the United States
Are assistant professor of philosophy jobs in demand?
Assistant professor of philosophy job and salary trends over time
Assistant professor of philosophy jobs over time
Assistant professor of philosophy job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 757 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 832 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 853 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 839 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 833 | 0.00% |
Average assistant professor of philosophy salary over time
Assistant professor of philosophy salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $67,582 | $32.49 | +1.2% |
| 2025 | $66,766 | $32.10 | +4.7% |
| 2024 | $63,793 | $30.67 | +3.3% |
| 2023 | $61,752 | $29.69 | +1.8% |
| 2022 | $60,661 | $29.16 | +3.0% |
Assistant professor of philosophy jobs by state
Most common states for assistant professors of philosophy
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 211 | 30% |
| 2 | Alaska | 739,795 | 111 | 15% |
| 3 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 964 | 11% |
| 4 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 635 | 11% |
| 5 | West Virginia | 1,815,857 | 183 | 10% |
| 6 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 105 | 10% |
| 7 | Vermont | 623,657 | 64 | 10% |
| 8 | New York | 19,849,399 | 1,783 | 9% |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 588 | 9% |
| 10 | Kentucky | 4,454,189 | 415 | 9% |
| 11 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 389 | 9% |
| 12 | Indiana | 6,666,818 | 555 | 8% |
| 13 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 880 | 7% |
| 14 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 613 | 7% |
| 15 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 448 | 7% |
| 16 | South Carolina | 5,024,369 | 365 | 7% |
| 17 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 223 | 7% |
| 18 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 138 | 7% |
| 19 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 69 | 7% |
| 20 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 58 | 7% |
Most common cities for assistant professors of philosophy
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fairfield | 1 | 2% | $93,979 |
| 2 | Washington | 5 | 1% | $115,056 |
| 3 | Gainesville | 1 | 1% | $72,622 |
Assistant Professor Of Philosophy job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of assistant professor of philosophy experts
Lehman College of the City University of New York
Furman University
Ashford University
University of South Florida
Connecticut College
Julie Maybee
Professor of PhilosophyLehman College of the City University of New York
Philosophy
What general advice would you give to an Assistant Professor Of Philosophy?
Julie Maybee: It is a myth that a degree with a major in philosophy cannot help graduates get jobs or do well in the job market over the course of their careers. My advice to graduates would be to be prepared to have to learn some job-specific skills as they move forward in their careers, but to feel confident that their study of philosophy has prepared them with important skills they'll need: critical and analytical thinking, being able to think creatively and be resilient and agile in response to problems, curiosity, communication skills, and skills for reading complex texts.
What Assistant Professor Of Philosophy skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Julie Maybee: The World Economic Forum's 'Future of Jobs Report 2023' states that employers will be looking for skills such as analytical thinking, creative thinking, self-efficacy skills like resilience, flexibility, agility, motivation, self-awareness, curiosity, and lifelong learning. Philosophy majors are being prepared to think analytically, think creatively, be resilient, flexible, agile, curious, and remain lifelong learners.
What general advice would you give to an Assistant Professor Of Philosophy?
Darren Hudson: Hi Darren! It's Alex from over at Zippia, the career expert site.
We're researching an article for graduates entering the job market with a degree in Philosophy, and hope to quote a professor at Furman University.
What Assistant Professor Of Philosophy skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Darren Hudson: In addition to providing students with new insights into the world, themselves, and those around them, a degree in Philosophy provides graduates with a set of universally transferrable skills in reasoning and problem solving that are highly valued by employers. Philosophy majors regularly outscore most other majors on tests to get into graduate school, business school, law school, and medical school. Philosophy majors also continue to have the highest rate of salary growth from entry to mid-career, at 103.5%.
Fabio Lanza
ProfessorAshford University
History
What will help Assistant Professors Of Philosophy increase their earning potential?
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.
What soft skills should all Assistant Professors Of Philosophy possess?
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.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Assistant Professors Of Philosophy?
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.
What skills will help Assistant Professors Of Philosophy earn the most?
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.
What skills stand out on Assistant Professor Of Philosophy resumes?
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.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Assistant Professor Of Philosophy job market given the pandemic?
Simon Feldman: My sense is that the pandemic will make it even more important to have a breadth of skills--from listening skills and critical reading and writing skills, to mastery of communication using social media and videoconferencing tools.
What soft skills should all Assistant Professors Of Philosophy possess?
Simon Feldman: In a world in which it has become ever more difficult--and important--to communicate effectively across difference, the ability to listen and both receive and offer constructive criticism will be of ever-increasing value.
How have salaries changed over time for Assistant Professors Of Philosophy?
Simon Feldman: If this is a question about salaries in the field of academic philosophy, then the answer is that because of very broad downward trends in resources available to support the humanities in academia, salaries are currently stagnating. But if this is a question about the salaries that students (with undergraduate philosophy degrees) earn in various other fields, the news is much better. Philosophy graduates continue to find professional and financial success in fields such as law, business, and consulting--and other fields that value flexible, critical, analytical and outside-the-box thinking,