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2004 Physics & Astronomy Academic Workforce

by Rachel Ivie, Stacy Guo, and Arnell Carr

Highlights

• Over the last ten years, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in physics has increased by approximately 1% per year, reaching 9000 in 2004 (Table 1). However, the percentage of FTE positions filled with temporary and non-tenure-track faculty has increased dramatically since 1998 and is now one in five positions (Table 2).
• The number of African American faculty members has increased by more than 20% since 2000, and the number of Hispanic faculty members has increased by more than 40% (Table 7). However, the percentages of African Americans and Hispanics on physics faculties are still very low (Table 6).
• The number of faculty who left positions at graduate physics departments remained steady since 2002, but the number of vacancies decreased significantly at bachelor’s departments (Table 8). The retirement rate also dropped overall to 2.6%, but bachelor’s departments had the largest decreases in retirements (Table 9).
• Graduate departments recruited for more tenured and tenure-track faculty than they had in 2003. However, bachelor’s departments recruited for 30% fewer tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Instead, they recruited for more temporary and non-tenure-track faculty (Table 10).
• The stand-alone astronomy departments had about 590 FTE positions in 2004. The PhD astronomy departments were recruiting for 22 tenured or tenure-track faculty members for 2004-05 (Table 11).
• Bachelor’s physics departments, like PhD physics departments, are hiring faculty members with experience—particularly those who have previously worked as postdocs, tenured or tenure-track faculty members, or research scientists (Table 14 ).
• Women are hired into ranked faculty positions at rates consistent with or better than degree production in the past. However, the percentage of female new hires among instructors and adjuncts is higher than among ranked faculty (Figure 2).