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Job outlook for teaching associates in the United States
Teaching associate job and salary trends over time
Teaching associate jobs over time
Teaching associate job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 117,096 | 0.03% |
| 2020 | 115,830 | 0.03% |
| 2019 | 120,929 | 0.04% |
| 2018 | 65,493 | 0.02% |
| 2017 | 68,148 | 0.02% |
Average teaching associate salary over time
Teaching associate salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $47,409 | $22.79 | +2.1% |
| 2024 | $46,454 | $22.33 | +8.5% |
| 2023 | $42,815 | $20.58 | +3.8% |
| 2022 | $41,240 | $19.83 | --5.2% |
| 2021 | $43,501 | $20.91 | +11.1% |
Teaching associate jobs by state
Most common states for teaching associates
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | 739,795 | 81 | 11% |
| 2 | Indiana | 6,666,818 | 314 | 5% |
| 3 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 349 | 4% |
| 4 | South Carolina | 5,024,369 | 196 | 4% |
| 5 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 195 | 3% |
| 6 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 21 | 3% |
| 7 | New York | 19,849,399 | 454 | 2% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 213 | 2% |
| 9 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 200 | 2% |
| 10 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 190 | 2% |
| 11 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 159 | 2% |
| 12 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 94 | 2% |
| 13 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 57 | 2% |
| 14 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 30 | 2% |
| 15 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 19 | 2% |
| 16 | Delaware | 961,939 | 17 | 2% |
| 17 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 10 | 2% |
| 18 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 160 | 1% |
| 19 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 123 | 1% |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 39 | 1% |
Most common cities for teaching associates
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boulder | 1 | 1% | $33,530 |
| 2 | Los Angeles | 2 | 0% | $36,546 |
| 3 | Atlanta | 1 | 0% | $39,232 |
| 4 | Washington | 1 | 0% | $54,152 |
Teaching Associate job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of teaching associate experts
Tiffin University
Christopher Newport University
University of Oregon
University of Arizona
Yale University
Graduate Theological Union
Connecticut College
Freed-Hardeman University
College of Charleston
Clemson University
Santa Clara University
University of Minnesota Crookston
University of Central Florida
Elmira College
Dr. Stephanie Opfer
Associate Professor of English, Assistant Dean of the School of Creative and Media ArtsTiffin University
Visual And Performing Arts
What will help Teaching Associates increase their earning potential?
Dr. Stephanie Opfer: Unfortunately, teaching as an adjunct does not pay well. Students should keep their full-time jobs and teach part-time until they find a full-time job at a college or university. That part-time teaching provides them valuable experience and connections that make them more competitive candidates for full-time positions because they'd also be competing with candidates who have PhDs. So adjunct work is more of a long-term investment rather than an immediate return. Also, even full-time teaching jobs don't pay particularly well, so they'll really need to love teaching if they want to do it full-time. If they don't like teaching as an adjunct, they won't like doing it full-time.
What general advice would you give to a Teaching Associate?
Dr. Mike Levine: In the next 3–5 years, I anticipate that research will be expected that explores more interdisciplinarity; owing both to intellectual trends in the academy, and to an ever-shrinking job market, which means that more will be demanded by less people. As well, you will be expected to be an expert in the exciting, interesting research niche that you have found and written about in your dissertation; but also quite knowledgeable about a broad range of information applicable towards teaching large general education (GE) classes filled with non-major students. Expertise in both of these areas will make you more competitive and give you a broader network to work with.
What Teaching Associate skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Mike Levine: Academia is most definitely not a career for those that want to get rich quick. It can take 5–6 years before your salary really starts to pick up steam (getting tenured, in other words). To get tenure: publish, publish, publish, while teaching and mentoring. Do some service to your department or college as well, but not so much that you get burnt out. As in any career, being seen and working with other people in your discipline, school, and area is key. So go to as many conferences as you can find funding for, and meet and work with as many people as you can. The 'cultural currency' you'll get from these interactions will come a lot sooner than actual currency will, but in academia, these two areas are often one and the same.
Mary Wood
Professor of EnglishUniversity of Oregon
English Language And Literature
What Teaching Associate skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
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.
What Teaching Associate skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
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.
What will help Teaching Associates increase their earning potential?
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.
Alexandre Debs
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate StudiesYale University
Department of Political Science
What skills stand out on Teaching Associate resumes?
Alexandre Debs: The three main methods we teach in our department are quantitative, qualitative and archival, and game theory. If you picked up top journals in political science, you would probably find that quantitative methods are used most frequently. If you looked at top graduate programs, you would find that few teach qualitative and archival methods as a field. That being said, there is excellent work in Poli Sci using qualitative and archival methods and game theory.
What soft skills should all Teaching Associates possess?
Alexandre Debs: In terms of soft skills, presentation and writing skills are obviously very important. Hiring committees receive many applications and select a few applicants (around three) to fly out for a job talk and interview.
Sangyil Sam Park Ph.D.
Professor of PreachingGraduate Theological Union
Berkeley school of theology (bst)
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Teaching Associate job market given the pandemic?
Sangyil Sam Park Ph.D.: I think that this pandemic situation will reset the job market in such a way that we have never expected-new jobs will be created and some of the traditional jobs will either be slashed or adjusted to meet the need of the new reality we have experienced for the past 12 months.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Teaching Associate 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 are the biggest trends we'll see in the Teaching Associate job market given the pandemic?
Kevin Moore Ph.D.: Until the pandemic subsides, churches will probably be less likely to make changes in their ministerial staff, and ministers less likely to leave their current positions to seek employment elsewhere. Technology proficiency has become almost indispensable.
What type of skills will young Teaching Associates need?
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice: The most important skill a History degree teaches has is critical thinking and writing, and those are skills that remain valuable for most of the white-collar workforce in this country.
Bo Clements
Lecturer of American Sign LanguageClemson University
Department of Languages
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Teaching Associates?
Bo Clements: Pandemic during life after Graduation is very obviously tricky. Look at the unemployment rates. Millions of job positions are in a freeze. No jobs out there. A positive note that a student has a degree in American Sign Language with specialization in Interpretation Education & Training, Wireless Technology, or Development & Innovative of Social Media allows working from home to create thousands of online jobs - Teaching, Marketing, Engineering, Spectrum of Technology, and many more.
We cannot remove our masks, making it so difficult to communicate, as it's hard to read people's lips. That is the number 1 communication barrier for all of us. We cannot be close or touch each other in a public place, even at work, to communicate in person. That makes it so difficult to find jobs.
What type of skills will young Teaching Associates need?
Dr. Radhika Grover: Graduates entering the workforce will need strong critical thinking skills and the ability to wear multiple hats. For example, the data scientist may need to understand, or even work on, web programming. Job seekers will need strong programming skills in one or more of these programming languages - Python, Java, C, C++, and Javascript. Graduates should also consider getting a second degree in another field, such as bioengineering or electrical engineering, because the intersection of disciplines can provide new research and development opportunities. A student once asked me, "If machines can do everything we do and do it better, what will we do in the future?" Graduates have to be ready to refresh their skill sets periodically so that they are irreplaceable.
Dr. Margaretha Rudstrom
LecturerUniversity of Minnesota Crookston
Agriculture and Natural Resources Department
What Teaching Associate skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Margaretha Rudstrom: I am taking this from the perspective of an agribusiness major.
If a student isn't able to land a position within their field of study, I would suggest they work on their people skills and stay up to date with what is happening in the markets, ag policy, and agriculture. Staying up to date means following the popular press in the areas you have a career interest in. That could mean following the news from places like Drovers, local and national producer associations, or congressional or senate ag committees. This will help keep you up to date on what's happening in the areas you have an interest in or are looking for a career.
I seem to be harping on the people skills piece. Get experience in working with customers, customer service, customer complaints. These experiences will help you develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and communication skills sought after by employers.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Teaching Associates to find work opportunities?
Dr. Kathleen Hohenleitner: Well, many students come to school intending to work in "book publishing," which I think means they want to read manuscripts at Penguin. That's not a super realistic goal for anyone unless they are in New York City, are independently wealthy, and are willing to start at the very bottom of the ladder. But there are nonetheless many other jobs for good writers, editors, and researchers all around the country. We were seeing more writers telecommuting even before the pandemic too, so I hope that indicates that such jobs are more about performance than about location.
There were also many jobs being advertised for English teachers in local public schools before the pandemic. I hope that continues.
What general advice would you give to a Teaching Associate?
Rebecca Sarver: Listen more than you talk. There is so much to be learned from clients, seasoned human service workers, and the community that you work within. By listening and observing versus always feeling compelled to speak, you will learn job skills, people skills, and your clients' needs.