Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Where the Jobs Are

Public libraries continue to be a popular choice for LIS job seekers, a few bright spots in the academic library job search.

Stephanie Maatta -- Library Journal, 10/15/2009

The Academic Scene | Serving the Public
  Other Opportunities | Region by Region

The Academic Scene

Of the 1,817 jobs reported in the current survey period, academic libraries comprised 29.3% of the overall placements. This was up approximately 13.4% from 2007. With the increase in placements came an increase in salaries in some regions of the United States, including a solid 3.9% in the Southwest, 4.7% in the Northeast, and a resounding 13% in the West. This seems to run counter to some of the stories shared during the survey period of across-the-board hiring freezes, nonprofessional staffing in lieu of professional librarians, and salary cuts. However, salaries in academic libraries in the Southeast and Midwest, areas severely impacted by the economic recession, fell below 2007 levels. New academic librarians in the Southeast lost 8.99% in salary, slipping to $38,722, while those in the Midwest dropped 3.5%.

Background and experience played out in salary for academic librarians, too. Nearly 41% of the grads who got academic library jobs also reported that LIS was not their first professional position. Their backgrounds included other advanced and professional degrees (master’s, J.D.'s, and Ph.D.'s), as well as specialized subject areas like medicine, computer sciences, engineering, etc. For these grads, starting salaries averaged $43,298 (approximately 5.2% higher than all academic librarians) compared to $39,517 for those for whom LIS was the first professional position.

There were a few bright spots in the academic library job search. The length of the job hunt was slightly shorter—4.1 months on average compared to 4.9 for all grads—for academic librarians. Even more encouraging, a higher percentage of academic librarians landed a job before graduation (41.4% compared to 22.9% for all of the grads). However, in the overall pool, 42.3% of grads returned to a previous employer upon graduation, but only 34.8% of academic librarians followed a similar trend. One additional highlight for new academic librarians was reflected in the decrease in the percentage of part-time positions reported. In 2007, approximately 23.3% of the new academic librarians were placed in part-time positions, while 16.3% reported similar fates in 2008.

Here, background and prior professional employment did not make the job search easier. Interestingly, grads who were seeking their first professional career had shorter job searches, four months compared to 5.3 months for those seeking second and third professional positions. (And, this was notably lengthier than the duration of the job search for all grads.) A far smaller proportion of career changers returned to their former employers, 32.9% compared to 40.1% of first-time professionals. This suggests, perhaps, that grads with professional experience were not seeking promotion at their place of employment as much as they were seeking completely new professional opportunities with more or different responsibilities.

Serving the Public

As in the past, public libraries continue to be a popular choice for LIS job seekers. In 2008, positions in public libraries made up approximately 29.6% of all reported placements, including full-time and part-time positions, up about 5.4% from 2007. However, the reports of full-time placement are down by approximately 12.5%. While remaining among the lowest offered, in 2008 salaries for new public librarians held steady, growing by less than 1%, when salaries for other types of libraries declined. Public library positions in the Northeast and in the West helped to balance the rise and fall of salaries with increases of 2.6% and 5.8%, respectively, from 2007. Even in the Southeast and Midwest where unemployment rates soared and salaries slumped, salaries for public librarians barely moved between 2007 and 2008.

Part-time employment in public libraries is a growing fact of life in the current economic environment. In 2008, approximately 18.3% of the LIS grads held part-time jobs, both within and outside of the profession. Of these part-time workers, 45.3% were employed in public libraries; this is a steep increase in the number of part-time positions compared to 2007 when 40% of new public librarians were part-time.

Like other types of jobs within the LIS professions, the search for public library positions was time-consuming and often frustrating. A repeated comment among LIS grads seeking public library jobs was that there were too few professional jobs with adequate salaries; they also indicated sending out many résumés and rarely landing an interview. Yet grads also struck some high notes. Approximately 48.6% of public librarians returned to their former employer upon graduation, many indicating they had expectations of promotion to professional staff from support staff. For some, the promotion did not come through as employers faced the decision to cut staff and hours; some also reported  that jobs had turned into part-time positions, accompanied by a loss of benefits. For others, the degree paid off in promotion to professional staffing complemented by higher salaries. For those who did not return to a former public library employer, the job search was a little shorter than some others experienced, averaging 4.1 months compared to the overall average of 4.9.

Public, Private, or Other

While often used as a catchall for organizations and types of jobs that defy description, other categories of employment provide interesting opportunities for LIS grads. The “other” classification encompasses three types of agencies: nonprofit organizations, such as social service agencies; private industry or corporate business; and those organizations that fall outside of LIS, such as retail, public relations, or hospital administration. In 2008, approximately 15.5% of the LIS graduates found employment in other agencies, down slightly from 16.3% in 2007. (This downward trend reflects similar patterns in library and information agencies of all types.)

As in the past, jobs in the other agencies represent a diversity of positions, ranging from information policy to business analysis. Several of the grads employed in nonprofit agencies described their jobs as donor research, identifying potential corporate and individual donors for fundraising. Social networking and social media cropped up, too. Usability testing, user experience design and analysis, and knowledge management have become standard fare within the “other” category. Private industry shows a strong emphasis on information technology, research analysis, and consulting. This category also represents jobs in archives, museums, and research foundations not affiliated with universities or corporate entities.

The type of “other” organization in which a grad seeks employment greatly impacts the level of salary likely to be obtained. Similarly to 2007, salaries diverged widely between nonprofits and private industry, $41,488 to $58,194, respectively (a solid 40% difference). The gap between women and men widened in 2008, with women earning 17.2% less than men in other agencies; in 2007, the salary differential was 12.5%.

Previous background and experience played a significant role in obtaining higher wages in private industry. Grads who had additional advanced degrees or prior professional experience earned an average salary of $62,391 (a generous 26.2% higher) compared to those without experience, who averaged $46,045. While there was not a real discernable pattern to backgrounds, among those listed were computer science, journalism, architecture, and management.

Region by Region

Historically, region has played a critical role in the level of salaries that LIS grads obtain. Jobs in the West and in the Northeast typically carry fatter paychecks and more opportunities. In 2008, although salaries declined nationwide, this pattern held. And, despite falling numbers, there were pockets of improvement for LIS grads regionally. In the Southwest, for example, women in academic libraries received an average of 7.l% higher salaries ($38,828) compared to 2007, and women in the West kept a similar pace, improving by 7.8% to $47,452.

Compared to 2007, part-time placements were up in the Midwest (34.9% in 2008 versus 24% in 2007) and the Southeast (9.3% in 2008, 7.3% in 2007). This holds little surprise given the other declines in placements and in salaries for the regions. The West, on the other hand, showed a decrease in part-time positions (13.1% in 2008 compared to 18% in 2007), as did the Southwest (dropping from 8.2% in 2007 to 6.9% in 2008).

Economic hardships hit the West hard, especially California, with salaries reversing the gains made previously, slipping from $50,736 to $48,593. But the news was not all dire out West. Salaries for public and academic librarians both experienced improvement, jumping a healthy 5.8% and 13% respectively. While notoriously among the lowest paying of library types, public library salaries in the West were competitive in 2008, averaging $46,727, or 19.6% higher than public library salaries nationwide (coming in at $37,556). Jobs in children’s ($47,856) and youth/teen services ($46,083) were among the best paying in public libraries; children’s librarians, in fact, had a slightly better average starting salary when compared to all placements in public libraries.

The Northeast, while showing evidence of unemployment and part-time jobs among the graduate pool, experienced overall salary growth in 2008. In fact, the Northeast was the only region to experience any overall salary growth for LIS grads in 2008, but the number of reported placements was down. Jobs may be paying better, but there are fewer of them to go around.

In the Southeast it was a somewhat different tale—salaries were down approximately 4.5% while placements were up approximately 15%, though placement numbers were helped by respondents from programs that had not participated in the recent past. Academic libraries in particular were affected by legislative funding decreases, resulting in salaries that were 8.9% below 2007 ($38,722 vs. $42,172). The most distressing figure in the Southeast is that 8.9% of the survey participants reported being unemployed post-graduation, compared to the entire graduating class at 5.9%. The good news in the Southeast is that salaries in public libraries held steady despite the economic stressors of lower property values and high foreclosure rates that impact public funding.

Economic pressures were also evident in the Midwest, which saw lower salaries in all library types except school library media centers. On the other hand, reported placements were up 22.6% amid reports of unemployment slightly below the national average for LIS grads

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