One of the ways the Job Register at the AHA annual meeting is useful (beyond matching up employers and candidates) is that it provides a snapshot of the job market. The February 2008 issue of Perspectives on History provided a brief overview of some of the numbers (“The 2008 Job Register: By the Numbers”). As reported in that article there were 261 active searches in Washington, D.C., down from 283 searches in Atlanta, 62 of which were open and collecting c.v.'s on site. 114 of the searches used the free Job Register tables.

How do these searches break down by region? Or by specialization? Using the regional categories from the back pages of Perspectives on History, the searches at the annual meeting broke down this way: 73 searches came from the Southeast; 50 from mid-Atlantic states; 40 from Great Lakes states; 28 from the West; 26 searches from New England states; 19 from the Southwest; 14 from the Rocky Mountains; and 10 were from Plains States. It may be interesting to note—though likely coincidental—that while the numbers are different, the order of the geographical distribution of searches is the same as the distribution of searches for the 2007 Job Register in Atlanta, save for the switching of the Rocky Mountain and Plains States at the end.

The fields of searches broke down this way (some searches are included in more than one category due to multiple specializations): 85 U.S. history searches (including 13 African American); 58 European history searches; 30 Asian searches; 29 world history searches; 23 Latin American searches; 18 African searches; 11 thematic history searches; 10 Middle Eastern history searches; 5 nonfaculty searches; and 2 general history searches.

—David Darlington is associate editor of Perspectives on History. He has co-managed the Job Register at AHA annual meetings for several years.