# Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary

US SOC code 25-1022. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-1022

Also called: Math professor, Mathematics professor, Math lecturer, Mathematics lecturer, Math faculty.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **47,670** US postsecondary mathematical science teachers, with median pay of **$79,940** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was **48,820**, in May 2024, close to the May 2025 count. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_315.10.asp) of **1,200** from 1870, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for postsecondary mathematical science teachers: Online homework systems and adaptive learning, 2005 to 2020. Online homework systems reduced the grading workload for large introductory courses, but also enabled departments to increase class sizes without proportional faculty additions.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 1.7% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1022&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **43.2%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

## Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1727
- Latest US employment: 47,670 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [3]
- Latest US median pay: $79,940 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [6]
- Outlook: +1.7% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [23]

### All 29 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1870 | 1,200 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES Digest of Education Statistics [1] |
| 1900 | 3,500 (estimate) | n/a | Est., AMS [2] |
| 1950 | 12,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES [1] |
| 1961 | n/a | $10,000 (estimate) | Est., AAUP Salary Report, January 1961 [4] |
| 1970 | 28,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES [1] |
| 1995 | 45,000 (estimate) | $45,000 (estimate) | Est., NCES (employment) [1]; Est., NCES (pay) [5] |
| 2003 | 41,880 | $50,910 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [3] |
| 2004 | 43,760 | $52,450 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [3] |
| 2005 | 44,660 | $53,820 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [3] |
| 2006 | 44,570 | $56,420 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [3] |
| 2007 | 44,560 | $58,560 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [3] |
| 2008 | 45,710 | $61,120 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [3] |
| 2009 | 48,100 | $63,640 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [3] |
| 2010 | 51,980 | $65,710 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [3] |
| 2011 | 53,650 | $66,680 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [3] |
| 2012 | 53,530 | $64,990 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [3] |
| 2013 | 53,970 | $65,930 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [3] |
| 2014 | 54,010 | $65,190 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [3] |
| 2015 | 53,850 | $67,170 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [3] |
| 2016 | 52,020 | $69,520 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [3] |
| 2017 | 50,870 | $70,910 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [3] |
| 2018 | 51,250 | $73,230 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [3] |
| 2019 | 51,150 | $73,690 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [3] |
| 2020 | 49,550 | $73,650 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [3] |
| 2021 | 44,140 | $77,580 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [3] |
| 2022 | 46,560 | $77,420 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [3] |
| 2023 | 48,230 | $81,020 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [3] |
| 2024 | 48,820 | $79,350 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [3] |
| 2025 | 47,670 | $79,940 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [3] |

## Sources (94)

### Employment series

1. [NCES Digest of Education Statistics — historical tables: instructional staff in postsecondary institutions (1870 context); IPUMS OCC1950 code 018](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_315.10.asp), National Center for Education Statistics
2. [AMS — History of the American Mathematical Society; enrollment growth figures from secondary historical source on US higher education](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mathematical_Society), American Mathematical Society / Wikipedia
3. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)

### Wage series

4. [AAUP Salary Report, January 1961 — Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (full professor avg compensation $12,664; assistant professor $8,773)](https://archive.dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/article/1961/1/1/aaup-salary-report), American Association of University Professors
5. [NCES — "Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Faculty 1994-95" (NCES publication 96-855)](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs/96855.pdf), National Center for Education Statistics
6. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
7. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Tool eras

8. [Harvard Mathematics Department Timeline (1727 Hollis Professorship; colonial-era instruction in arithmetic, geometry, and surveying)](https://legacy-www.math.harvard.edu/history/timeline/index.html), Harvard University Mathematics Department
9. [History of the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics in the United States (MAA/Ohio articulation; calculus first taught at Harvard seniors circa 1825)](https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/transfercredit.ohio.gov/files/math/MAAUndergradHistory.pdf), Mathematical Association of America
10. [History of the Department of Mathematics, Johns Hopkins University (J. J. Sylvester, 1876; research seminar model)](https://mathematics.jhu.edu/about/history-of-the-department/), Johns Hopkins University
11. [American Mathematical Society — History (AMS founded 1888 as New York Mathematical Society; national professionalization of mathematics faculty)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mathematical_Society), American Mathematical Society / Wikipedia
12. [National Defense Education Act — US Senate History (Sputnik spurs passage of NDEA, 1958; establishes federal legitimacy for STEM higher education funding)](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Sputnik_Spurs_Passage_of_National_Defense_Education_Act.htm), US Senate Historical Office
13. [School Mathematics Study Group — Wikipedia (SMSG founded 1958, NSF-funded, E. G. Begle director; hundreds of faculty institutes; New Math curriculum reform)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Mathematics_Study_Group), Wikipedia
14. [Wikipedia — TI-30 (Texas Instruments scientific calculator, 1976; first widely affordable scientific calculator replacing the slide rule in education)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30), Wikipedia
15. [Wolfram Research — Mathematica Turns 20 Today (Stephen Wolfram blog, June 23, 2008; release history and "wow" quote on symbolic computation)](https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2008/06/mathematica-turns-20-today/), Wolfram Research
16. [Wolfram Mathematica — Wikipedia (history of Mathematica from 1988; Maple and MATLAB context)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Mathematica), Wikipedia
17. [ALEKS — About ALEKS (McGraw-Hill; knowledge-space theory adaptive learning for college mathematics)](https://www.aleks.com/), McGraw-Hill / ALEKS
18. [Wikipedia — WeBWorK (open-source online homework system for mathematics, developed at University of Rochester from mid-1990s)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeBWorK), Wikipedia
19. [OpenAI — o3 achieves 96.7% on AIME 2024 and 87.7% on AMC (December 2024)](https://openai.com/index/openai-o3-mini/), OpenAI
20. [Google DeepMind — AlphaGeometry: solving IMO geometry problems at silver-medal level (Nature, January 2024)](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06747-5?error=cookies_not_supported&code=492c2efb-b2f0-40f2-8300-cc2ad473ceaf), Google DeepMind / Nature
21. [Federal Reserve FEDS Notes — Educational Exposure to Generative Artificial Intelligence (February 2026): Math/CS majors have highest AI exposure z-score (1.1) among all college major categories](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/educational-exposure-to-generative-artificial-intelligence-20250226.html), Federal Reserve Board
22. [MAA Focus — Rethinking Calculus Assessment in the Age of AI (2025-2026): departments redesigning courses away from routine computation toward proof and AI-error identification](https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/assessing-calculus-in-the-age-of-ai), Mathematical Association of America

### Forecasts and exposure studies

23. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 25-1022 Mathematical science teachers, postsecondary (2025: 57.1 thousand; 2035: 58.1 thousand; +1.7%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1022&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
24. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 25-1022.00, human-rated β 0.432)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

25. [Harvard Mathematics Department Timeline — 1727 Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy](https://legacy-www.math.harvard.edu/history/timeline/index.html), Harvard University Mathematics Department
26. [History of the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics in the United States (MAA; Harvard 1825 calculus introduction)](https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/transfercredit.ohio.gov/files/math/MAAUndergradHistory.pdf), Mathematical Association of America
27. [Cornell Mathematics Department Sesquicentennial Historical Notes — "first American university dedicated to research" context; Yale 1862 first US math PhD](https://math.cornell.edu/historical-notes-chapter-1), Cornell University Mathematics Department
28. [History of the Department of Mathematics, Johns Hopkins University (J. J. Sylvester 1876; research seminar founding)](https://mathematics.jhu.edu/about/history-of-the-department/), Johns Hopkins University Mathematics Department
29. [The National WWII Museum — "The GI Bill and Planning for the Postwar" (49% of college students were veterans by 1947; campus expansion and faculty hiring)](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gi-bill-and-planning-postwar), The National WWII Museum
30. [US Senate Historical Office — "Sputnik Spurs Passage of the National Defense Education Act" (NDEA 1958; NSF funding increase ~300%)](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Sputnik_Spurs_Passage_of_National_Defense_Education_Act.htm), US Senate Historical Office
31. [Stephen Wolfram — "Mathematica Turns 20 Today" (blog post, June 23, 2008; historical account of 1988 release and impact)](https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2008/06/mathematica-turns-20-today/), Wolfram Research
32. [OpenAI — o3 achieves 96.7% on AIME 2024, 87.7% on AMC (December 2024); DeepMind AlphaGeometry (Nature, January 2024)](https://openai.com/index/openai-o3-mini/), OpenAI

### Predecessors & successors

33. [Harvard Mathematics Department Timeline — Hollis Professorship 1727 (first named mathematics chair; predecessor role was generalist tutor)](https://legacy-www.math.harvard.edu/history/timeline/index.html), Harvard University Mathematics Department
34. [AMS Annual Survey — PhDs Awarded (primary entry into mathematics faculty is doctoral degree; the Yale PhD in mathematics first awarded 1862)](https://www.ams.org/learning-careers/data/annual-survey/phds-awarded), American Mathematical Society
35. [O\*NET 25-1022.00 — typical education requirement: doctoral degree; typical entry is via postdoctoral appointment](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/25-1022.00), O\*NET / BLS
36. [Lean 4 / Mathlib — formal proof community bridging mathematics faculty and computer science research (2025)](https://leanprover-community.github.io/), Lean Prover Community

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1022.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/25-1022.00), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Federal Reserve FEDS Notes — Educational Exposure to Generative AI (Feb 2026): Math/CS highest language-model z-score (1.1) among all college major categories](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/educational-exposure-to-generative-artificial-intelligence-20250226.html), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Google DeepMind — AlphaGeometry: solving Olympiad geometry at silver-medal level (Nature, Jan 2024)](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06747-5?error=cookies_not_supported&code=492c2efb-b2f0-40f2-8300-cc2ad473ceaf), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Google DeepMind — FunSearch: discovering new mathematical knowledge using large language models (Nature, Dec 2023)](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06924-6?error=cookies_not_supported&code=5a1511bf-fdb5-45b7-83c8-56d35491287f), accessed 2026-05-23
- [OpenAI — o3 model achieves 96.7% on AIME 2024 and 87.7% on AMC (Dec 2024)](https://openai.com/index/openai-o3-mini/), accessed 2026-05-23
- [DeepSeek-Math — Using a Large Language Model to Solve Competition Math (arXiv 2402.03300, 2024)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03300), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Lean 4 / Mathlib — Formal proof assistant with GitHub Copilot integration (leanprover-community, 2025)](https://leanprover-community.github.io/), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Wolfram Research — Mathematica 14 LLM Notebook Assistant: symbolic computation + AI chat integration (2024)](https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/), accessed 2026-05-23
- [OpenAI — ChatGPT Edu: CSU system-wide deployment (460k+ users across 23 campuses, Feb 2025)](https://campustechnology.com/articles/2025/02/05/california-state-university-launches-systemwide-chatgpt-edu-deployment.aspx), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Gradescope — AI-assisted grading and programming autograder documentation (2025)](https://guides.gradescope.com/hc/en-us/articles/24838908062093-AI-assisted-grading-and-answer-groups), accessed 2026-05-23
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Postsecondary Teachers (2024–2034, +8% projected growth)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm), accessed 2026-05-23
- [MAA Focus — Rethinking Calculus Assessment in the Age of AI (2025–2026)](https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/assessing-calculus-in-the-age-of-ai), accessed 2026-05-23
- [ALEKS — Adaptive Learning for Math Courses (McGraw-Hill, 2025)](https://www.aleks.com/), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Khan Academy Khanmigo — AI Socratic math tutor: provides hints and explanations without giving direct answers; widely deployed in higher ed introductory courses (2025)](https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs), accessed 2026-05-23

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.