Jobs in the Mathematical Sciences Fell Last Year

November 8, 2010 

Job prospects for doctoral mathematicians took "a decided turn for the worse" during the 2008-2009 hiring season.

The “2009 Annual Survey of Mathematical Sciences in the U.S. (Third Report)” also recorded decreases in full-time faculty hired, tenure-track positions, and doctoral recipients.

The Survey, published in the Notices of the AMS (November 2010), found that, for all mathematics departments, the number of full-time positions filled during 2008-2009 was 1,464. This represented the smallest number of such positions since 1997, when it stood at 1,246. The number of tenured/tenure-track positions under recruitment during this period was 930, down almost 25% from the previous year’s figure.

The number of new doctoral recipients hired for positions beginning in fall 2009 was down 13% from the previous year’s 656. Likewise, there was a drop in the number of new doctoral recipients obtaining tenure-track positions for fall 2009: 301 slots were filled, compared to 378 for fall 2008.

The estimated number of full-time faculty in all mathematics departments was 22,463, almost unchanged from the previous reporting period.

The number of non-doctoral full-time faculty remained steady at 3,969. The number of part-time faculty, however, was 6,570, down 2% from the year before.

The reported number of full-time graduate students at doctoral mathematics departments increased from 10,883 in fall 2008 to 11,268 for fall 2009.  The number of women graduate students increased slightly to 3,248.

U.S. citizens represented 56% of full-time graduate students (unchanged from the previous four years). The percentage of underrepresented minorities among the U.S. graduate students remained steady at 10%, which was in line with the figures for the previous four years.

The Annual Survey, which first appeared in 1957, is compiled under the direction of the Data Committee, a joint committee of the AMS, the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Its committee members are Pam Arroway, Richard Cleary (chair), Steven R. Dunbar, Susan Geller, Abbe H. Herzig, Ellen Kirkman, Joanna Mitro, James W. Maxwell (ex officio), Bart S. Ng, Douglas Ravanel, and Marie Vitulli.

The Survey is sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

Read the full survey here (pdf).

Source: Notices of the AMS (November 2010)