Rhetmap.org: Tracking Weeks 1-17

"Racing" bar chart: Comparing each year's job postings per week until week 17/January 1

Current year only includes values up until the available weekly rhetmap data.

Totals for each season by July 1st:

Limitations of the "Market Comparison" Data

The following is an excerpt from Ridolfo & Lindgren (2019), where Ridolfo notes the limitations of the "Market Comparison" data set:

The rhetmap data originally mirrored the MLA JIL’s Composition & Rhetoric (C/R) listings (2012-2013), then both the C/R and Technical and Business Writing (TBW) listings (2013-2014). It did not begin as a long-term data collection project. In 2014-2015, rhetmap began accepting listings for a donation to a field fund that are not on the MLA JIL. By 2018-2019, direct listings on rhetmap.org now make up approximately 11% of advertisements.. There are thus a few specific limitations to the evolving dataset over time. First, different silos are measured (with some overlap) on the MLA JIL between 2012-2014. While some 2012-2013 TBW jobs are cross-listed in the CR category, not all were. As rhetmap.org began to accept job advertisement submissions in 2014-2015, the project no longer became a direct mirror of the MLA JIL. That said, neither the combined MLA JIL or rhetmap listings are a complete snapshot of the total market. While rhetmap.org maintains a low barrier to job submissions (a small field donation to a fund on the honor system), some jobs will only be listed on sites such as InsideHigherEd, Chronicle, local HR websites, or field listservs. The comparative usefulness of the data, long-term, should be viewed with those concerns in mind.

(Informal) Rhetoric & Composition Job Census

Beyond the initial 17 weeks tracked by rhetmap.org, how many jobs are offered each year in Rhetoric and Composition? To answer this question, the results below are generated from an informal census count of the jobs advertised each year by using the Academic Jobs Wiki as its source.

The below charts were generated from scraped data from the 2011-2020 Rhetorican & Composition Academic Job Wiki pages. I modified Ryan Heuser's jobcensus repo designed for English Studies. (See my source code here: rc-jobcensus).

Note: Please remember that the latest job year will only reflect the total since it was last scraped. This chart excludes Postdoctoral positions from the recently cross-linked 'Humanities & Social Sceince Postdocs' page in 2020.

I am also identifying some data-quirks, so please consider the below results with that information in mind. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

2011-2020: Rhetoric & Composition Jobs Overall (excluding postdocs)

Chart that conveys an overall decline in the number of all academic positions between 2011 and the current market year.

Chart that conveys an overall decline in the number of all academic positions between 2011 and the current market year.

2011-2020: Rhetoric & Composition Jobs by Type

NOTE: The job-type chart below includes postdoctoral positions from the recently cross-linked 'Humanities & Social Science Postdocs' page in 2020. Consequently, more results that may not be relevant to our discipline may be included below. Furthermore, this provenance of the data explains the spike in postdoctoral positions in 2020.

Chart that conveys the number of academic positions categorized by its type between 2011 and the current market year. For example, tenure-track, non tenure-track, postdoc, and unknown positions.

Chart that conveys the number of academic positions categorized by its type between 2011 and the current market year: Tenure-track, non tenure-track, postdoc, and unknown positions.

2011-2020: Rhetoric & Composition Jobs by Field

NOTE: The field-type chart below includes postdoctoral positions from the recently cross-linked 'Humanities & Social Sceince Postdocs' page in 2020. Consequently, more results that may not be relevant to our discipline may be included below.

Chart that conveys the number of academic positions categorized by their field of study between 2011 and the current market year: rhetoric and composition, generalist, community college, etc.

Chart that conveys the number of academic positions categorized by their field of study between 2011 and the current market year: rhetoric and composition, generalist, community college, etc. The job fields were chosen based on their relevance to broader discipline.