Market insights

The academic job market, in numbers

What the postings collected by AcademicGates say about hiring demand, pay, requirements and skills — by field, country and position type. Updated daily.

These figures are derived only from job postings collected by AcademicGates. They are indicative, may contain errors or gaps, and do not describe any specific institution, person or labour market. They are not official statistics.

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Academic positions · All countries · Last 90 days Updated 2026-09-14 · figures cover postings published 2026-06-16 → 2026-09-14 (last 90 days); the monthly series goes back to 2017. All countries is US-weighted: about 91% of postings are from the United States.
Postings, last 90 days
15,715
Open right now
15,113
Institutions hiring
638
Postings in Aug 2026
806 +22%
Median salary (USD)
$64,000
Require a PhD
40%

1.Hiring demand

1.1Postings over time

Canonical postings per month on one continuous series since 2017. Months without collected data are left blank, not estimated. The chart is cut to the selected time range (rolling ranges show the last 12 months); month-on-month figures are as of today.

1.2Demand by field

Postings by field, last 90 days (a posting tagged with several fields counts fractionally; m/m = change in the last full month).

1.3Position mix

Share of postings by position type, last 90 days.

1.4Open postings right now

Postings currently open by country (lifecycle-tracked). Tooltip shows how concentrated hiring is (HHI: 0 = spread across many institutions, 10,000 = one institution). Current state — not affected by the time range.

1.5Postings by country

Postings and institutions hiring, last 90 days.

2.Pay

2.1Salary benchmark

Annual salary converted to USD (hourly rates annualised at full-time hours). Bar = 25th–75th percentile, mark = median; only cells with 30+ postings that state a salary.

2.2Median salary by field

Fields with 30+ postings stating a salary, for the selected position type. Bar = 25th–75th percentile, mark = median.

2.3Median salary by country

USD at ECB monthly rates. Cost of living differs — the tooltip shows the PPP-adjusted median.

3.Careers and contracts

3.1Career pipeline

Share of academic postings by career stage. Early faculty = lecturer and assistant professor; senior = associate and full professor.

3.2Postdoc pressure by field

Postdoc postings per faculty posting (early + senior), by field. Higher means more postdocs competing for each faculty opening.

3.3Contract security

Share of postings on fixed-term, temporary or casual contracts, among postings that state a contract type.

3.4Contract length

Median stated contract length in months, by position type (postings that state a duration).

4.Timing

4.1Hiring calendar

Share of a year's postings published in each month, averaged over complete years since 2017. Current state — not affected by the time range.

4.2Application window

Days between publication and the stated deadline (median), where a real deadline is given.

5.Requirements

5.1What employers ask for

Read from the posting text. Shares are among postings that state the item.

5.1.1Minimum degree

5.1.2Application materials

5.1.3Work mode

5.2Requirements by position type

Share of postings requiring a PhD, tenure-track share among faculty posts, and visa sponsorship offered — each among postings that state the item.

6.Skills and topics

6.1Skills in demand

Skills named in postings, normalised to ESCO / O*NET. Share of postings with at least one identified skill. AI/ML skills highlighted.

6.2Research and hiring topics

Topics found automatically in the text of postings from the last 12 months (largest first). Current state — not affected by the time range.

6.3Skill groups

ESCO skill groups, share of postings with at least one identified skill.

6.4AI / ML skills

Skills matched to the AI/ML list, share of postings with skills.

6.5AI / ML skills by field

Share of postings (with identified skills) that mention at least one AI/ML skill.

6.6Skill clusters

Skills that are asked for together (co-occurrence clusters, refreshed weekly). Tooltip lists the main members. Current state — not affected by the time range.

7.Geography and interest

7.1Where the jobs are

Postings per million inhabitants, last 90 days — normalised so smaller countries are visible.

7.2Top cities

Postings by city, last 90 days (geocoded postings only).

7.3Candidate interest

Page views per posting on AcademicGates relative to the average for the scope (1.0 = average). Higher means more views per posting.

8.Market pulse

The academic job market shows a significant increase in postings over the last month, with 15,715 positions open for the past 90 days. Lecturer roles dominate at 56%, followed by Professor positions at 22%. Health sciences, biological sciences, and clinical medicine are among the top fields. The median annual salary across all positions is about $64,000, with substantial variation between different position types.

  • 14,471 positions currently open
  • 638 institutions hiring
  • Median salary for Lecturer roles is about $61,383

Based on postings collected by academicgates, indicative only, not a labour-market statistic. · A short note written from the figures above and checked number by number against them.

9.Most active institutions

Employer →

By academic postings in the last 90 days, within the selected country. Current state — not affected by the time range.

United States · A
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
319 postings · 265 open · median $57,250
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
University of Georgia
264 postings · 259 open · median $31,338
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
University of Kentucky
248 postings · 235 open · median $53,442
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
University of California, Irvine
242 postings · 240 open · median $129,350
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · C
Del Mar College
241 postings · 239 open · median $52,000
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · C
Indiana University East
237 postings · 224 open · median $60,000
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
University of Miami
211 postings · 248 open · median $500,000
100% academic
United States · A
Texas A&M University
179 postings · 164 open · median $50,000
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
North Carolina State University
172 postings · 166 open · median $58,656
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · A
University of California, Berkeley
171 postings · 166 open · median $108,500
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers
United States · D
Fayetteville Technical Community College
170 postings · 170 open · median $23,920
100% academic
United States · A
Florida College
142 postings · 141 open · median $54,080
100% academic · salary at the 0th percentile of peers

10.How complete is the data

Share of postings in the selected scope that state each item. Charts above are computed only on postings that state the item.

How these numbers are made

Postings are collected daily from university career sites and applicant-tracking platforms, de-duplicated, and enriched with a language model that reads the text (position type, field, salary, contract, requirements, skills). Salaries are annualised and converted to USD with monthly ECB rates. Cells with fewer than 30 postings are not shown. Historical postings (2017–2025) come from an earlier archive and are joined into one time series. Coverage is strongest for the United States; other countries are partial.

These figures are derived only from job postings collected by AcademicGates. They are indicative, may contain errors or gaps, and do not describe any specific institution, person or labour market. They are not official statistics. Source: postings collected by AcademicGates · computed 2026-09-14 · indicative only.