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Job outlook for physics instructors in the United States
Are physics instructor jobs in demand?
Physics instructor job and salary trends over time
Physics instructor jobs over time
Physics instructor job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 996 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 1,092 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 1,101 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 1,097 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 1,096 | 0.00% |
Average physics instructor salary over time
Physics instructor salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $59,031 | $28.38 | +0.9% |
| 2025 | $58,502 | $28.13 | --1.3% |
| 2024 | $59,292 | $28.51 | +4.0% |
| 2023 | $57,033 | $27.42 | +3.3% |
| 2022 | $55,224 | $26.55 | +2.1% |
Physics instructor jobs by state
Most common states for physics instructors
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 495 | 9% |
| 2 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 45 | 8% |
| 3 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 587 | 7% |
| 4 | South Carolina | 5,024,369 | 355 | 7% |
| 5 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 76 | 7% |
| 6 | Delaware | 961,939 | 71 | 7% |
| 7 | Alaska | 739,795 | 55 | 7% |
| 8 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 673 | 6% |
| 9 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 659 | 6% |
| 10 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 253 | 6% |
| 11 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 453 | 5% |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 323 | 5% |
| 13 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 293 | 5% |
| 14 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 166 | 5% |
| 15 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 38 | 5% |
| 16 | Vermont | 623,657 | 34 | 5% |
| 17 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 32 | 5% |
| 18 | California | 39,536,653 | 1,691 | 4% |
| 19 | Nevada | 2,998,039 | 133 | 4% |
| 20 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 46 | 4% |
Most common cities for physics instructors
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chaska | 1 | 4% | $54,231 |
| 2 | Pleasant Hill | 1 | 3% | $78,802 |
| 3 | Jupiter | 1 | 2% | $52,772 |
| 4 | Maple Grove | 1 | 1% | $54,210 |
| 5 | Redwood City | 1 | 1% | $79,223 |
| 6 | Los Angeles | 1 | 0% | $75,215 |
Physics Instructor job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of physics instructor experts
One University Parkway
Texas A&M
North Carolina State University
Humboldt State University
University of California - Davis
University of Northern Colorado
SUNY Potsdam: The State University of New York, Potsdam
Lafayette College
Linfield University
Florida State University
Keir Fogarty Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of ChemistryOne University Parkway
Chemistry Department
What soft skills should all Physics Instructors possess?
Keir Fogarty Ph.D.: -Concrete evidence of oral and written communication skills
-As well as interpersonal skills, effective time management, multitasking, making effective use of limited resources
What skills stand out on Physics Instructor resumes?
Timothy Logan Ph.D.: Strong communication; possess innovative and engaging pedagogical techniques; ability to teach multiple learning styles (i.e., visual, tactile, auditory, etc.); apply concepts in meteorology to real-world current events.
What soft skills should all Physics Instructors possess?
Timothy Logan Ph.D.: Connect and engage with students, especially students who may struggle with science or have no science preference; demonstrate the interconnection between meteorology and other science/nonscience fields.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Physics Instructors?
Timothy Logan Ph.D.: Induce critical thinking and problem-solving; enhance teamwork and collaboration skills among the students.
What skills will help Physics Instructors earn the most?
Timothy Logan Ph.D.: Ability to increase student enrollment; community outreach to surrounding K-12 students to inspire future generations to take meteorology classes; create student research projects to provide mentorship and opportunities for students to learn how to be responsible for their own work; assist research professors with their projects; seek outside funding to bring students to national conferences.
Anantha Aiyyer
Associate ProfessorNorth Carolina State University
Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
What skills stand out on Physics Instructor resumes?
Anantha Aiyyer: For someone who wants to be a meteorology instructor, the skills that stand out are pedagogical techniques (e.g., active learning techniques) and experience with course design for small and large enrollment classes.
What soft skills should all Physics Instructors possess?
Anantha Aiyyer: While I do not consider communication (written and verbal skills) and time management as "soft skills," they are often clubbed under that category.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Physics Instructors?
Anantha Aiyyer: Solid understanding of atmospheric dynamics (the science of weather prediction), familiarity with observed and modeled data products, and a solid ability to interpret the outputs of weather prediction models.
What skills will help Physics Instructors earn the most?
Anantha Aiyyer: Coding skills (Python, C, Fortran, etc.), statistics, machine learning/artificial intelligence.
Dr. C.D. Hoyle
Professor of Physics and AstronomyHumboldt State University
Physics and Astronomy Department
What skills stand out on Physics Instructor resumes?
Dr. C.D. Hoyle: -previous teaching experience
-experience with active-learning pedagogies and techniques
-experience interacting with a diverse student population
What soft skills should all Physics Instructors possess?
Dr. C.D. Hoyle: -time management
-teamwork (for working with lab instructors, etc.)
-conflict resolution
-respectfulness
What hard/technical skills are most important for Physics Instructors?
Dr. C.D. Hoyle: -experience with a learning management system
-experience with classroom technology
-experience with laboratory hardware and software
-scientific programming/computation
What skills will help Physics Instructors earn the most?
Dr. C.D. Hoyle: -previous teaching experience
-having experience with laboratory equipment and setups
Patricia Boeshaar Ph.D.
Distinguished Sr. Lecturer EmeritaUniversity of California - Davis
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Physics Instructors?
Patricia Boeshaar Ph.D.: In general, Physics majors can do just about anything, as indicated by just a few of the positions/jobs in which physics majors have found positions:
-Patent Lawyer/Patent law office assistant
-Marine/Oceanographic Scientist
-Aerospace engineer
-State of CA/Water Engineer
-High School or Community College Science Teacher
-Computer Animation Specialist
-Artificial Intelligence/Robotics Research
-Scientific and Computational Management (with minor in Business)
-Software & Yield Teams/spin-electron quibit engineer
-Facebook Security
-Meteorology
-Veterinarian
-Medical Physics
-Night Operations Support Scientist/Subaru telescope
-Electrical Engineer
-Information Specialist/Publishing
-Investment Banking
-Computational Management
The skills learned in physics allow one to go between different disciples, e.g. astrophysics to investment banking....so in a sense they can change career direction.
Given what our students have accomplished in the past and the continual need for good people in these positions, I do not believe that the pandemic will have a serious effect on this year's physics graduates" prospects.
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Physics Instructors?
Patricia Boeshaar Ph.D.: This depends on what field they enter, e.g. Education usually requires a Masters in Education; Graduate Programs generally require anywhere from 2-6 years in that specialty. Otherwise, Physics teaches students how to problem solve, so many often pick up any additional skills on the job.
What will help Physics Instructors increase their earning potential?
Patricia Boeshaar Ph.D.: We suggest that students who wish a job in industry try to pick up some Business courses...a minor in Business would be especially useful...along with building people/communication and networking skills. Emphasis on networking here.
In general, a Ph.D. will increase your earning potential, as will working in industry over academia. I suggest you look at the salary and employment tables in the American Institute of Physics web site for more details. They have done a superb job graphically displaying not only career choices by degree, but also as related to type of employer and salary.
Charles Kuehn Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorUniversity of Northern Colorado
Department of Physics and Astronomy
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Physics Instructor job market given the pandemic?
Charles Kuehn Ph.D.: I think the two biggest trends that we are going to see in the job market are an increased availability of remote work and increased importance of interdisciplinary work.
Even before the pandemic there had been a slow trend toward embracing remote work more and the pandemic accelerated that. While the amount of in-person work will go up as we move out of the pandemic, remote work will have a much larger presence than it ever did before. The biggest benefits to future employees from this will be an increase in jobs that they can apply for since location will be less important. Jobs that were in a region where the employee wouldn’t want to live are now feasible, two-career relationships won’t have pressure about relocating for an opportunity for one partner, etc… This increase in remote work opportunities will also increase the importance of good communication skills when applying for jobs.
STEM fields in general are seeing a growing amount of interdisciplinary work and physics is no exception. Biophysics and medical physics are fast growing areas, as is experimental optics where we are seeing collaborations with chemists to work development of new types of solar cells. Increasingly we are seeing how skill sets from one area are useful for others and how many connections exist between the behaviors of different systems. For example, physicists studying soft materials have seen connections between their work, how folding occurs in the brain, and behavior of human populations in cities. The increase in big data in physics has led to the growth of econophysics where economic systems are modeled using methods developed in computation physics. Being able to see, understand, and exploit these interdisciplinary connections will be important not only for increasing ones desirability to employers but to solve many of our most pressing current problems in the world.
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Physics Instructors?
Charles Kuehn Ph.D.: Big data is becoming increasing important in most areas of physics so the ability to work with large data sets is extremely valuable. This includes nor only the ability to program but to understand the statistics needed for working with large data sets. Any training in data science, whether it is a minor, a certificate, or just a few classes will have a huge positive impact on job prospects.
In the classes I teach I always put a huge amount of emphasis on the importance of communication. You can be the best physicist in the world but if you can’t communicate your results then you won’t have much of a career. Learning how to communicate to different audiences is crucial; how you communicate with experts in the field is very different from how you communicate with people outside the field and the most successful people are the ones who can do both. I’m also a big supporter of learning project management if you ever want to move up the ranks.
How have salaries changed over time for Physics Instructors?
Charles Kuehn Ph.D.: It depends on if you are looking at academia or the private sector. Physics jobs in the private sector have shown strong growth with starting salaries increasing by about 20% since 2010 according to data from the American Institute of Physics. In academia the picture isn’t as positive with starting salaries showing about 10% growth on the low end and remaining flat on the upper end; against according to statistics from the AIP.
What Physics Instructor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
(Lily) Li Linghong: I can provide answers to your questions for the article.
How would you rate the starting salaries for Physics Instructors, as well as the prospects for salary advancement?
Karina Skvirsky: Art careers are not known to pay well, but they produce enough and can be very satisfying for the mind and the soul.
How do you envision technology impacting Physics Instructors in the next 5 years?
Dr. Carrie Kondor: I believe that teachers will be more intentional and comfortable with technology. Technology will continue to be used to target specific learning needs. It provides opportunities for kinesthetic, auditory, and visual supports to pedagogy, while also opening up opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in meaningful and creative ways. Perhaps another important note is that this pandemic has shown us that technology cannot take our teacher's place. Effective and responsive teachers are the key to student success.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Physics Instructors?
Shel McGuire: Yes, I believe that there will be an enduring impact on graduates. In meteorology, it is very important for our students to gain experience before either entering the job market or applying to graduate school. With courses going remote, that includes internships at FSU. My students are not able to complete their internships with places such as the National Weather Service and other agencies. In addition, we have a weather-casting studio in our building where the students produce daily weather forecasts, which are broadcast on the FSU station. The broadcasting students have not been able to access the studio, and this will greatly affect their ability to produce the weather-casting tapes that they need to apply for positions this spring when they graduate.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Physics Instructors to find work opportunities?
Shel McGuire: There does not seem to be a particular area in the United States that is better or worse. Our students who get hired for broadcasting jobs get offers from all over the United States. Our students who go to graduate school also go to a variety of schools across the nation. For the students who have chosen the private sector, they tend to stay in major cities, such as Boston.
How do you envision technology impacting Physics Instructors in the next 5 years?
Shel McGuire: Since I work as an academic advisor who has a degree in Career Counseling, I mostly work with the students to complete the coursework and to find ways to gain skills that are needed in their field. The students will often take extra coursework in computer science, graphical information systems, and emergency management to complement their degree in meteorology. Computers are definitely used a lot in meteorology, and I am sure advances in computer systems and the ability to manage and collect data will impact the field, but since I am not a meteorologist, it is hard for me to say.