# History Teachers, Postsecondary

US SOC code 25-1125. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-1125

Also called: History professor, History postsec teacher, History faculty, History lecturer, American history professor.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **18,790** US postsecondary history teachers, with median pay of **$83,820** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was **20,610**, in May 2023. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_301.20.asp) of **700** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for postsecondary history teachers: AI handwritten text recognition, 2016 to 2023.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects little or no change in employment from 2025 to 2035 (0%). Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1125&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **58.9%** 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.

## History Teachers, Postsecondary employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1876
- Latest US employment: 18,790 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [3]
- Latest US median pay: $83,820 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [7]
- Outlook: +0% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [22]

### All 29 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 700 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 [1] |
| 1940 | 4,400 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 [1] |
| 1956 | n/a | $5,500 (estimate) | Est., University of Missouri Libraries [4] |
| 1970 | 12,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 [1] |
| 1990 | 20,000 (estimate) | $37,000 (estimate) | Est., NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 (employment) [1]; Est., American Association of University… (pay) [5] |
| 2000 | 16,630 | $49,080 | BLS OEWS 2000 [2] |
| 2003 | 18,110 | $52,180 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [3] |
| 2004 | 19,190 | $54,040 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [3] |
| 2005 | 20,520 | $54,780 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [3] |
| 2006 | 20,980 | $57,390 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [3] |
| 2007 | 20,760 | $59,160 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [3] |
| 2008 | 21,020 | $62,000 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [3] |
| 2009 | 21,810 | $63,490 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [3] |
| 2010 | 23,240 | $64,880 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [3] |
| 2011 | 23,470 | $65,860 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [3] |
| 2012 | 23,590 | $65,870 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [3] |
| 2013 | 23,640 | $66,790 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [3] |
| 2014 | 23,640 | $66,840 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [3] |
| 2015 | 23,680 | $69,400 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [3] |
| 2016 | 21,800 | $71,820 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [3] |
| 2017 | 21,120 | $72,690 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [3] |
| 2018 | 20,510 | $74,590 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [3] |
| 2019 | 21,030 | $75,170 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [3] |
| 2020 | 20,450 | $76,890 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [3] |
| 2021 | 18,590 | $78,130 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [3] |
| 2022 | 18,250 | $79,400 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [3] |
| 2023 | 20,610 | $82,140 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [3] |
| 2024 | 19,860 | $81,500 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [3] |
| 2025 | 18,790 | $83,820 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [3] |

## Sources (90)

### Employment series

1. [NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 — Historical summary of faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions: 1869-70 through 2017-18](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_301.20.asp), National Center for Education Statistics
2. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
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. [University of Missouri Libraries, Prices and Wages by Decade: 1950-1959 (academic salary reference compiled from BLS and AAUP sources)](https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1950-1959), University of Missouri Libraries
5. [American Association of University Professors — Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession (historical salary data series)](https://www.aaup.org/our-work/economic-status-profession), American Association of University Professors
6. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
7. 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)
8. [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

9. [Johns Hopkins Gazette — "Pioneer of Graduate Seminars in U.S.: Herbert Baxter Adams" (October 2000): Adams inaugurated history seminar at Hopkins around 1880, trained Woodrow Wilson, Frederick Jackson Turner, and J. Franklin Jameson](https://gazette.jhu.edu/2000/10/23/pioneer-of-graduate-seminars-in-us-herbert-baxter-adams/), Johns Hopkins University
10. [Wikipedia — Herbert Baxter Adams: founding of the American Historical Association (1884), history seminar model at Hopkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Baxter_Adams), Wikipedia
11. [NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 — Historical summary of faculty in postsecondary institutions (1949-50 faculty: 246,722; 1959-60: 380,554; 1969-70 ~450,000): context for postwar faculty boom](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_301.20.asp), National Center for Education Statistics
12. [Wikipedia — Microfilm: history of microfilm use in academic libraries and archives from the 1940s onward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfilm), Wikipedia
13. [Wikipedia — IBM Personal Computer (August 12, 1981 introduction; adoption in American academic offices through the 1980s)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer), Wikipedia
14. [JSTOR — About JSTOR: "JSTOR was launched in 1995 as a way to provide access to back issues of academic journals"](https://about.jstor.org/), JSTOR
15. [Wikipedia — HathiTrust (founded October 13, 2008 as a partnership of universities and the Internet Archive)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HathiTrust), Wikipedia
16. [Wikipedia — Canvas (LMS): "Canvas was launched by Instructure on August 12, 2011"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_%28LMS%29), Wikipedia
17. [Transkribus (READ-COOP) — For Universities: 500+ universities using Transkribus; CER 5-10% on trained models; free education tier; LLM integration announced 2025](https://www.transkribus.org/for-universities), READ-COOP / Transkribus
18. [Digital Orientalist — Transkribus in the Classroom: Central Connecticut State University assignment on East India Company Mocha Factory Diaries (1752); ~75% baseline accuracy before expert correction](https://digitalorientalist.com/2023/11/07/transcribus-in-the-classroom/), Digital Orientalist
19. [AHA — Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education (approved July 29, 2025): 14 foundational principles; 68.9% of historians redesigned courses to mitigate AI misuse; 92.6% sought AI policy guidance](https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/), American Historical Association
20. [Stat News — Rise in fraudulent AI-generated citations: 1 in 2,828 papers (2023) to 1 in 277 (first 7 weeks of 2026); Lancet study May 2026](https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/07/lancet-study-finds-steep-rise-fraudulent-citations-academic-papers/), STAT News
21. [AHA 2025 Academic Jobs Report: full-time history faculty declined 13% from 2010 peak to 2025 (9,398 to 8,210); 425 job listings in 2024-25, lowest since pandemic](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-2025-academic-jobs-report/), American Historical Association

### Forecasts and exposure studies

22. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 25-1125 History teachers, postsecondary (2025: 23.2 thousand; 2035: 23.2 thousand; 0.0%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1125&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
23. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 25-1125.00, human-rated β 0.589)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

24. [Johns Hopkins Gazette — "Pioneer of Graduate Seminars in U.S.: Herbert Baxter Adams" (October 2000)](https://gazette.jhu.edu/2000/10/23/pioneer-of-graduate-seminars-in-us-herbert-baxter-adams/), Johns Hopkins University
25. [Wikipedia — Herbert Baxter Adams: co-founder of the American Historical Association (1884)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Baxter_Adams), Wikipedia
26. [NCES Digest 2019 Table 301.20 — Historical summary of faculty, enrollment, degrees, and finances: 1949-50 faculty 246,722; 1959-60 faculty 380,554 (54% growth in a decade)](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_301.20.asp), National Center for Education Statistics
27. [AHA — Precedents: The Job Crisis of the 1970s (April 1997): 2,481 applicants vs 188 jobs at 1970 annual meeting; PhDs doubled 1964-1970 (507 to 1,092)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/precedents-the-job-crisis-of-the-1970s-april-1997/), American Historical Association
28. [AHA 2025 Academic Jobs Report: full-time tenured/tenure-track history faculty in 2000: 8,692 (AHA Directory of History Departments, 556 institutions)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-2025-academic-jobs-report/), American Historical Association
29. [AHA — Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education (approved July 29, 2025): 68.9% redesigned courses; 92.6% sought AI policy guidance; 14 foundational principles](https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/), American Historical Association

### Predecessors & successors

30. [Wikipedia — Herbert Baxter Adams: displaced the amateur literary-historical tradition with the German seminar method at Hopkins in 1876](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Baxter_Adams), Wikipedia
31. [AHA — Precedents: The Job Crisis of the 1970s (1997): 87% of history PhDs employed in four-year colleges and universities in 1977; academic pipeline is the primary feeder](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/precedents-the-job-crisis-of-the-1970s-april-1997/), American Historical Association

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — History Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1125.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/25-1125.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [BLS OES 2024 — History Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1125): median annual wage $81,500; ~24,600 employed; little or no change projected 2024-2034](https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes251125.htm), accessed 2026-05-24
- [AHA — Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education (approved July 29, 2025): 14 foundational principles; 68.9% of historians redesigned courses to mitigate AI misuse; 92.6% sought AI policy guidance](https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [AHA — AHA Publishes Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education (Aug 5, 2025)](https://www.historians.org/news/aha-publishes-guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [AHA — 138th Annual Meeting (Jan 3-6, 2025): AI in History Education Lightning Round — 20 educators across K-12, 2-year, 4-year, and graduate programs](https://aha.confex.com/aha/2025/webprogram/Session26685.html), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Institute of Historical Research — Doing Historical Research in the Age of Generative AI: Some Points to Consider (blog.history.ac.uk, May 2025): AI hallucination, citation fabrication, non-traceability of sources](https://blog.history.ac.uk/2025/05/doing-historical-research-in-the-age-of-generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-some-points-to-consider/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Transkribus (READ-COOP) — AI handwritten text recognition for historical documents: 500+ universities using; CER 5-10% on trained models; free tier for students and teachers; LLM integration announced 2025](https://www.transkribus.org/for-universities), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Transkribus Blog — How the University of Helsinki teaches Transkribus to students: homework assignments on early modern documents (16th–20th c.)](https://blog.transkribus.org/en/how-the-university-of-helsinki-teaches-transkribus-to-students), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Digital Orientalist — Transkribus in the Classroom: Central Connecticut State University assignment on East India Company Mocha Factory Diaries (1752), ~75% baseline accuracy before student correction](https://digitalorientalist.com/2023/11/07/transcribus-in-the-classroom/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [JSTOR — AI Research Tool: semantic search via GPT-4o mini and GPT-4.1 nano across 14,000+ participating institutions; no additional cost; scaled in beta July 2025; promoted at AHA 2025](https://about.jstor.org/products/jstor-platform/features-and-tools/research-tool/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Stat News — Rise in fraudulent AI-generated citations: 1 in 2,828 papers (2023) → 1 in 458 (2025) → 1 in 277 (first 7 weeks 2026); Lancet study (May 2026)](https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/07/lancet-study-finds-steep-rise-fraudulent-citations-academic-papers/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [British Journal of Educational Technology — The Impact of Generative AI on Academic Integrity of Authentic Assessments within a Higher Education Context (Kofinas et al., 2025)](https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjet.13585), accessed 2026-05-24
- [NPR — AI detection tools are unreliable; teachers are using them anyway (Dec 2025): false-positive rates; Turnitin 87% / GPTZero 73% catch rate for mixed AI content](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/16/nx-s1-5492397/ai-schools-teachers-students), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Packback — AI discussion coaching platform: students cite sources 2x more often; 600+ higher education institutions; humanities department implementations (2025)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260520215331/https://packback.co/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Lucas Poy — Using NotebookLM for research with digitised historical newspapers: source-linked synthesis of 19th-c. primary material (2025)](https://lucaspoy.substack.com/p/using-notebooklm-for-research-with), accessed 2026-05-24

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