Aero Data Lab, “a collaboration of scientists, ethicists, and policy-makers interested in improving the quality of the clinical research enterprise,” has published an analysis of trends in the academic philosophy job market over the past six years.
The analysis, by Spencer Hey (Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital), tracks changes in the number of academic positions advertised for different areas of specialization in philosophy, based on data from PhilJobs.
I thought readers might be interested in the specific numbers for ancient philosophy, which are included on the chart below. The yearly numbers are within a fairly narrow range and there is little evidence of any strong trends either upwards or downward. Of course, this data only includes jobs advertised on PhilJobs, which may exclude a number of jobs outside North America as well as some institutions (such as community colleges and some religious institutions) inside North America. When I have time, I hope to do a fuller analysis of jobs and job candidates in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, using the more complete data of the Academic Placement Data and Analysis project run by Carolyn Dicey Jennings.