Faculty Hiring Trends — Week of October 4, 2026
Faculty Atlas is currently tracking 23,422 open faculty positions — +379 compared to last week. Among listings matched to institution type, 70.8% are at public institutions and 29.2% are at private nonprofit institutions. Adjunct roles represent the largest category with 8,922 listings. Among positions with a known appointment track, 23.6% are tenure-track and 76.4% are non-tenure-track. 1,024 listings (4.4%) explicitly reference artificial intelligence or a core AI method. Nursing is the most in-demand discipline among classified listings this week, with 1,031 open positions.
Most active systems
| TX | 2,358 |
| NY | 2,163 |
| NC | 1,163 |
| OH | 1,028 |
| FL | 995 |
| IL | 927 |
| CA Private | 904 |
| PA | 878 |
| NJ | 737 |
| VA | 664 |
Top disciplines
| Nursing | 1,031 |
| Psychology | 354 |
| Biology | 329 |
| Mathematics | 329 |
| Computer Science | 274 |
| Chemistry | 246 |
| Accounting | 204 |
| Education | 204 |
| Economics | 167 |
| Physics | 163 |
AI hiring pulse
| Explicitly AI-related openings | 1,024 |
| Share of all listings | 4.4% |
| Vs prior week | +63 |
Strict classifier v1 counts explicit references to artificial intelligence and core methods including machine learning, generative AI, natural language processing, computer vision, and neural networks. Broad data-science and robotics listings are excluded unless an AI signal is present.
Appointment track
| Tenure-track | 5,139 · 23.6% of classified |
| Non-tenure-track | 16,658 · 76.4% of classified |
| Variable / candidate-dependent track | 284 |
| Unclassified | 1,341 |
Position types
| Adjunct | 8,922 |
| Assistant Professor | 3,845 |
| Other | 2,284 |
| Instructor | 2,161 |
| Professor (Full/Open Rank) | 1,488 |
| Clinical | 1,370 |
| Associate Professor | 1,332 |
| Lecturer | 857 |
| Postdoctoral | 819 |
| Visiting | 243 |
| Research Faculty | 101 |