2021-2022 eJobs Report: the Political Science Job Market

In 2021-2022, no significant correction occurred regarding the number of job openings to pre-pandemic job market levels. Since 2018-2019, the number of postings has declined, a trend carrying across months, geographic locations, subfields, and position ranks. Job postings decreased in nearly every US region, with the largest declines observed in the Northeast and the Midwest. Along with the Western region, these regions also contain the most jobs. Increased breadth/ diversity of the subfields designated in job postings could indicate employers are trying to capture more candidates with broader job descriptions in a tighter labor market. However, this may result in confusion or inefficiencies (failed and repeated years-long searches). As in other STEM fields, it is prudent for recent graduates with doctoral degrees in political science to broaden their transferable skills and widen their career outlooks beyond academic jobs simply because there are not enough academic positions for PhDs earned.