Some sociology faculty salaries edge up: New research brief

The ASA Department of Research has released its 2012-2013 analysis of salary trend data for the academic sociology profession and other social sciences. Among our findings: average annual faculty salary changes between Academic Year (AY) 2011/12 and AY 2012/13 show slow or no growth in salaries at public institutions, compared to private institutions.

FACULTY: What happened in the past academic year to salaries at your institution?  Why?

How well does your dean know the sociology profession?

Recently, a number of academic sociology department chairs expressed to us a desire for the deans of their schools to further develop their understanding of the sociology discipline and coursework. The ASA Department of Research is here to help.

Sociology is relevant to helping undergrads cultivate social science research skills, develop a better understanding of their lives, and make decisions about careers or future graduate study. It also has an interdisciplinary nature, which brings a wealth of subject matter and technical approaches to several different disciplines such as engineering and even medicine.

ASA’s Research Department conducts large- and small-scale surveys of academic sociologists and sociology students, providing information about satisfaction with the sociology major, profiles of and trends in sociology departments, demographic information (e.g., addressing race and gender) in the profession and discipline, and other vital data. The bulk of its work culminates in freely-available research and data briefs that can be downloaded from our web site.

Help us to inform the dean of your school/college of sociology’s role in life and work. If you are a faculty member of a freestanding or joint department that offers a sociology major, please submit the name and email address of your school’s dean using the form below. Information submitted through our blog is transmitted securely and will never appear on this blog site. In turn, we will share with them timely and relevant information to them (via a single email message), such as links to our various research and data briefs on the profession, and other critical findings of interest. If they wish to receive further information or future updates from us, we will provide them with that option.

Should you have questions about this endeavor, please contact Robert Spalter-Roth, Director of the Department of Research, at research@asanet.org.

Name of Your School's Dean(required)

Email address of your school's dean(required)

Experiences of Sociology Graduate Students with the Academic Job Market?

As the Research Department prepares to launch its latest survey of academic departments’ outcomes with search and interview processes for assistant and open rank faculty positions advertised in 2011, we welcome graduate or recent graduate students seeking jobs in academia to discuss their own experiences with search processes. For those who have sought positions within the past year, have they been predominantly at the assistant or open-rank level? Has a position for which you applied or interviewed been cancelled or suspended? If your training is in sociology, have you applied or interviewed for positions in academic departments outside of sociology? How closely have your areas of expertise matched the areas of specialization sought by the departments to which you’ve applied?

Several past research briefs and projects by the Research Department have surveyed the landscape of the academic job market and experiences with hiring assistant or open-rank level faculty, including our 2010 Job Bank Study. For the results from the first part of our latest Job Bank study (an audit of all positions posted in ASA’s Job Bank in 2011), click here.

 

New Data on Sociology and Social Science Faculty Salaries

Our latest brief, “Two Years of Lost Purchasing Power: 2011 – 2012 Faculty Salary Brief for Sociology and Other Social Science Disciplines,” discusses trends in faculty salaries. For this brief, we use data from the National Faculty Salary Survey, collected by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR).

You can find other research briefs available to download for free on our website.

New Data on Jobs in Sociology and Other Social Sciences

We are underway with our annual Job Bank study. This is a two-part study. First, we conduct an audit of all jobs advertised through the ASA in the previous calendar year. We look at the number and types of jobs being advertised, and compare this to previous years. In the second part of the study, we survey departments that advertised assistant and open rank faculty teaching positions to find out whether their searches yielded successful hires. Or, if not, then why not? (i.e. Was the position canceled? Was the search suspended? Is the offer still in negotiation? etc.) For findings from last year’s study, see “Moving Toward Recovery: Findings from the 2010 Job Bank Survey.”

This year, we compared jobs advertised through the ASA with those advertised through other social science associations. Results from the full study (we will not begin the survey until April) will be presented at the ASA Annual Meeting in August.

The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring on PhD Careers

A new research brief, “The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring for ‘Ideal’ and ‘Alternative’ PhD Careers in Sociology” is now available on our website. As always, we invite your comments and questions.

The Job Market in Sociology: Findings and Upcoming Surveys

Our annual research brief on sociology and social science faculty salaries, “Falling Behind: Sociology and Other Social Science Faculty Salaries, AY 2010-2011“, is now available on our website. Data from the National Faculty Salary, conducted annually by the College & University Professional Association of Human Resources (CUPA-HR), shows that not only did social science faculty salaries fail to outpace inflation between academic years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, but that salary increases in recent years have become incrementally smaller. Not surprisingly, raises were larger at private institutions for most social science disciplines (economics is the exception).

In other job market-related research, we are preparing to go into the field with this year’s follow-up to the annual ASA Job Bank Survey. In addition to an audit of all jobs advertised in the Job Bank and regional society listservs in 2010, we will be surveying departments to determine the status of assistant and open rank faculty positions advertised during this period. Findings from this study will be available later this summer. Last year’s findings can be found in “Still a Down Market: Findings from the 2009/2010 Job Bank Survey.”

Exploring the Networks of Teaching and Learning Scholars

Our first research brief of the new year is now available! Networks and the Diffusion of Cutting-Edge Teaching and Learning Knowledge in Sociology is the second in the series on our study of networks of teaching and learning scholars. In it, we compare the characteristics of the early adopters of ASA’s new interactive, peer-reviewed Teaching Research and Innovative Library in Sociology (TRAILS) in 2010 with those who purchased the now defunct paper-based teaching and learning materials (TRC materials) in 2008.

In exploring the diffusion of innovation, our research attempts to answer the following questions:

• How are transformational ideas and practices produced and diffused in an academic discipline?
• Does a new technology lead to more widespread dissemination of cutting-edge teaching and learning materials?
• Does it lead to changes in the connections and characteristics of sociology faculty members involved in the production and consumption of teaching and learning knowledge?
• Are social interventions necessary to broaden the scope of usage and patterns?

Feel free to post comments and questions. Please do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous.

(Photo credits: Michigan State University, SNR)

Examining the Pay Gap: Faculty Salaries at Public and Private Institutions

In a new databrief, we compare average annual faculty salaries in sociology departments at public and private institutions during academic years 2002-03 and 2009-10. We also compare these salaries to other social sciences. Read more in The Gap in Faculty Pay Between Private and Public Institutions: Smaller in Sociology than in Other Social Sciences.

And as always, we invite you to post your comments, questions, and suggestions about this topic. Please do not include your full name if you wish to remain anonymous as these are publicly displayed. 

The 2009-2010 Job Bank Study: Another Year of Declines in Advertised Faculty Positions

Each year, we conduct an audit of jobs advertised in the ASA Job Bank. (Findings from the previous years can be found in Too Many or Too Few PhDs? Employment Opportunities in Academic Sociology (2006 data) and Down Market? Findings from the 2008 ASA Job Bank Survey). In 2008, we expanded our study beyond comparing the number of academic and non-academic positions to include a survey of departments that advertised at least one assistant or open rank position in order to find out what happened to those jobs. Were their searches successful and, if so, were they filled at the rank of assistant professor? How many jobs were canceled or searches suspended due to a hiring freeze? Where openings remained vacant because of cancellations or other reasons, would temporary faculty be used to fill the gap? Because information on the job market is most useful to new PhDs, our survey is limited to departments that advertised positions for which newly minted PhDs can apply.

As reported in our new research brief, Still a Down Market: Findings from the 2009/2010 Job Bank Survey, the total number of jobs advertised has continued to decline since 2006. The number of jobs advertised has continued to decline since 2006, a finding similar to those reported by other social science and humanities disciplines. Comparing all jobs advertised by U.S. and foreign institutions in 2009 to those in 2008, we find fewer academic positions, but slightly more non-academic positions. Assistant and open rank faculty positions, which account for a majority of academic positions advertised in the ASA Job Bank (92% in 2009) fell 35% while the number of advertising departments fell 32% compared to 2008-2009 figures. On a somewhat optimistic note, searches were conducted in almost all cases, and about 86% of those were successful. Read more findings, including information on jobs not filled, and comparisons by departments and types of institutions in our new research brief.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Click here to post your comments and questions. As we will continue this study next year, we welcome suggestions as to what data we should collect for future studies on the job market for sociologists.

All comments are public, do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous.