September JOE

As we come to the end of September, I'm looking (anxiously) forward to the October JOE (that's Job Openings for Economists for those who don't know). The October JOE is the main source of job listings for newly-minted Econ PhDs and there is a certain amount of uncertainty as to how many openings there will be. Last year there were over 500 positions listed. Unfortunately, as the size of the current economic crisis became evident, many of these jobs were pulled and the job market tightened significantly. But before we see the larger and more important October JOE I thought I'd take a minute to look at the September issue.

Last year's September JOE had 182 listings of which 88 were full-time tenure or tenure-track academic positions in the U.S. and 59 were full-time non-academic. This year there are only 113 listings, a 38% decrease. Only 46 of these are full-time tenure or tenure-track U.S. academic jobs. That's down 47% from last year! That's um, not good. Non-academic full-time jobs were down to 29, slightly more than 50%.

There are a number of Canadian academic jobs (I love Canada!), but they all end with a disclaimer that Canadian citizens will be given preference. And one of the U.S. academic positions listed gave me pause. Bryn Mawr posted a listing for an assistant professor which looked great. After all, my grandmother, aunt, and cousin are all graduates. But BMC says that "applicants should have a minimum of two years post-Ph.D. teaching and/or research experience." Um, ok. I guess that puts me out since I expect to get my PhD in the Spring.

Now this type of requirement is fairly common in other fields. People go do post-docs or get adjunct positions for a couple years after they get their degree and then look for a tenure-track position after they've published. But economics has not usually had this type of requirement, I assume because of the extra demand from government and private industry. In fact, Bryn Mawr listed in 2008 (also in September) and only required that applicants expect their PhD at the time of appointment.

If this represents a trend it could be a problem for those of us finishing up in 2010. It's possible, given the soft job market last year that supply is higher this year than normal. If so, schools who are actually hiring (like Bryn Mawr), may feel that they're in a stronger position and can demand more (like experience) than they would usually be able to.

The October JOE should be out in ten days or so. We'll see.