# Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary

US SOC code 25-1067. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-1067

Also called: Sociology professor, Soc professor, Sociology postsec teacher, Sociology faculty, Sociology lecturer.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **11,850** US postsecondary sociology teachers, with median pay of **$84,290** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was **17,430**, in May 2010. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.asanet.org/about/history-of-asa/) of **1,500** from 1920, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for postsecondary sociology teachers: Computational social science tools + Zoom pedagogy, 2015 to 2023.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 2.2% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1067&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **39.8%** 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. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1892
- Latest US employment: 11,850 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $84,290 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [8]
- Outlook: +2.2% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [23]

### All 27 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1920 | 1,500 (estimate) | n/a | Est., American Sociological Association [1] |
| 1950 | 4,200 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES Digest of Education Statistics [2] |
| 1970 | 14,000 (estimate) | $12,000 (estimate) | Est., American Sociological Association (employment) [3]; Est., AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey (pay) [6] |
| 1990 | 16,200 (estimate) | $38,000 (estimate) | Est., NCES (employment) [4]; Est., American Historical Association (pay) [7] |
| 2003 | 13,990 | $52,770 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [5] |
| 2004 | 14,220 | $54,860 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [5] |
| 2005 | 14,980 | $54,320 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [5] |
| 2006 | 16,110 | $56,620 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [5] |
| 2007 | 16,130 | $58,160 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [5] |
| 2008 | 16,440 | $61,280 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [5] |
| 2009 | 16,380 | $64,430 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [5] |
| 2010 | 17,430 | $64,810 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [5] |
| 2011 | 17,250 | $66,250 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [5] |
| 2012 | 16,880 | $66,150 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [5] |
| 2013 | 17,200 | $67,940 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [5] |
| 2014 | 16,900 | $67,880 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [5] |
| 2015 | 16,160 | $69,230 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [5] |
| 2016 | 14,580 | $71,840 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [5] |
| 2017 | 13,630 | $73,080 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [5] |
| 2018 | 13,870 | $74,140 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [5] |
| 2019 | 13,850 | $75,290 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 13,420 | $75,610 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 12,550 | $77,980 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 12,030 | $78,970 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 12,870 | $82,670 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 12,380 | $82,540 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 11,850 | $84,290 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (91)

### Employment series

1. [ASA History of the American Sociological Association (founding through 1930s growth)](https://www.asanet.org/about/history-of-asa/), American Sociological Association
2. [NCES Digest of Education Statistics -- Historical summary of faculty and enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions (dt19\_301.20)](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_301.20.asp), National Center for Education Statistics
3. [American Sociological Association -- Membership 20-year trends and historical growth data](https://www.asanet.org/diversity-equity-inclusion/dei-at-asa/asa-membership/membership-trends-over-the-years/), American Sociological Association
4. [NCES -- Characteristics and Attitudes of Instructional Faculty and Staff (NSOPF-93 methodology report)](https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/statistical-analysis-report/1993-national-study-postsecondary-faculty-nsopf-93-methodology-report), National Center for Education Statistics
5. 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

6. [AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey -- Historical summary noting 1970-71 inflation-adjusted salary peak and subsequent eight-year real-terms decline (1972-1981)](https://research.aaup.org/history), American Association of University Professors
7. [American Historical Association -- 1990 Faculty Salary Update (social sciences faculty compensation data for 1989-90 academic year)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/1990-faculty-salary-update/), American Historical Association
8. 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)
9. [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

10. [Wikipedia -- Chicago school (sociology): founding faculty, methods, and urban ethnography tradition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_%28sociology%29), Wikipedia
11. [OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e -- Chapter 1.2 The History of Sociology (early discipline formation, empirical methods, early faculty)](https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-2-the-history-of-sociology), OpenStax
12. [Wikipedia -- Paul Lazarsfeld (Columbia Bureau of Applied Social Research: survey research methods, statistical analysis, and the quantitative sociology tradition he established, 1940s-1970s)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lazarsfeld), Wikipedia
13. [ERIC ED230462 -- A History of the American Sociological Association, 1905-1980 (quantitative methods adoption in sociology departments)](https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED230462), ERIC / American Sociological Association
14. [Wikipedia -- SPSS (history of statistical software for social sciences, 1968 Stanford origin)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPSS), Wikipedia
15. [ATLAS.ti -- Product history (ATLAS.ti 1.0 released 1993, Scientific Software Development, Berlin)](https://atlasti.com/), ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH
16. [Wikipedia -- JSTOR (history: founded 1995; social sciences and humanities journals added 1997)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR), Wikipedia
17. [Qualtrics -- Company history (Qualtrics founded 2002 by Scott Smith and sons in Provo, Utah)](https://www.qualtrics.com/), Qualtrics
18. [Cambridge University Press -- Teaching Computational Social Science for All (PS: Political Science and Politics, 2025): trajectory of CSS methods in social science graduate training](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/teaching-computational-social-science-for-all/66EAB886BCF21C647E2387051D6A9BEF), Cambridge University Press
19. [Davidson and Karell 2025 -- Integrating Generative AI into Social Science Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation (Sociological Methods and Research)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00491241251339184), Sage Journals
20. [Federal Reserve FEDS Notes -- Educational Exposure to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Feb 2026): social sciences among most LLM-exposed academic disciplines](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/educational-exposure-to-generative-artificial-intelligence-20250226.html), Federal Reserve Board
21. [ASA -- Challenges and Opportunities: Teaching Sociology in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (webinar, 2025)](https://www.asanet.org/webinar/challenges-and-opportunities-teaching-sociology-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/), American Sociological Association
22. [Judson 2025 -- "But I Didn't Use ChatGPT!": Democratic Course Design and Generative AI in Higher Education (Teaching Sociology, doi:10.1177/0092055X251342530)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0092055X251342530), Sage Journals

### Forecasts and exposure studies

23. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 25-1067 Sociology teachers, postsecondary (2025: 14.6 thousand; 2035: 15.0 thousand; +2.2%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1067&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 25-1067.00, human-rated β 0.398)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

25. [Wikipedia -- Albion Woodbury Small (biography and founding of University of Chicago Department of Sociology, 1892)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion_Woodbury_Small), Wikipedia
26. [ASA -- History of the American Sociological Association (founding at Johns Hopkins, December 1905)](https://www.asanet.org/about/history-of-asa/), American Sociological Association
27. [The National WWII Museum -- "The GI Bill and Planning for the Postwar": enrollment surge and higher education expansion after 1944](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gi-bill-and-planning-postwar), National WWII Museum
28. [Wikipedia -- SPSS (history: 1968 Stanford origin, social science adoption)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPSS), Wikipedia
29. [AAUP -- Faculty Compensation Survey History (eight-year real-terms salary decline 1972-1981 documented)](https://research.aaup.org/history), American Association of University Professors
30. [NCES -- National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF-93): faculty characteristics and the growth of part-time instructional employment](https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/statistical-analysis-report/1993-national-study-postsecondary-faculty-nsopf-93-methodology-report), National Center for Education Statistics
31. [ASA -- "Challenges and Opportunities: Teaching Sociology in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" (webinar, 2025)](https://www.asanet.org/webinar/challenges-and-opportunities-teaching-sociology-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/), American Sociological Association

### Predecessors & successors

32. [OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e -- 1.2 The History of Sociology (pre-1892 sociology taught within political economy and philosophy departments)](https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-2-the-history-of-sociology), OpenStax
33. [ASA -- History of the American Sociological Association (research sociologists moving into faculty positions as departments professionalized)](https://www.asanet.org/about/history-of-asa/), American Sociological Association

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1067.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/25-1067.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [BLS OES May 2025 — Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1067): median annual wage $103,610](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes251067.htm), accessed 2026-05-24
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Postsecondary Teachers (2024–2034, +7% projected growth)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Federal Reserve FEDS Notes — Educational Exposure to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Feb 2026): Social Sciences among highest LLM-exposed academic disciplines](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/educational-exposure-to-generative-artificial-intelligence-20250226.html), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Judson 2025 — "But I Didn't Use ChatGPT!": Democratic Course Design and Generative AI in Higher Education (Teaching Sociology, doi:10.1177/0092055X251342530)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0092055X251342530), accessed 2026-05-24
- [ASA — "Challenges and Opportunities: Teaching Sociology in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" webinar (American Sociological Association, 2025)](https://www.asanet.org/webinar/challenges-and-opportunities-teaching-sociology-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [MDPI Societies — Generative AI as a Teaching Tool for Social Research Methodology: Addressing Challenges in Higher Education (2025, vol 15(6):157)](https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/6/157), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Davidson & Karell 2025 — Integrating Generative AI into Social Science Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation (Sociological Methods & Research, doi:10.1177/00491241251339184)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00491241251339184), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Schueller et al. 2026 — Evaluating AI-Assisted Deductive Coding in MAXQDA: A Methodological Analysis (Social Science Computer Review, doi:10.1177/16094069251407046)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/16094069251407046), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Springer Quality & Quantity 2025 — Thematic analysis of interview data with ChatGPT: designing and testing a reliable qualitative research protocol (doi:10.1007/s11135-025-02199-3)](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11135-025-02199-3?error=cookies_not_supported&code=03bed1cd-e786-42bf-a370-a99674c1bf62), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Sonix — FERPA-compliant AI transcription for academic qualitative research: 99%+ accuracy, 53+ languages, NVivo/ATLAS.ti export-ready, 10 minutes per 2-hour interview (sonix.ai, 2025)](https://sonix.ai/resources/ferpa-compliant-transcription-software-research-academia/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Packback — Instructional AI discussion platform: AI Curiosity Score enforces citation-backed inquiry; 2x citation rate vs. LMS discussion boards; immediate student feedback before submission (packback.co, 2025)](https://packback.co/platform/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Instructure — "From Detection to Prevention: Rethinking Academic Integrity with Packback's Instructional AI" (2025)](https://www.instructure.com/resources/blog/from-detection-to-prevention-rethinking-academic-integrity-with-packback), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Gradescope — AI-assisted grading and answer groups: groups similar student responses for batch-grading efficiency in higher education (guides.gradescope.com, 2025)](https://guides.gradescope.com/hc/en-us/articles/24838908062093-AI-assisted-grading-and-answer-groups), accessed 2026-05-24

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