To many observers, the job market for PhDs in English (and other humanities fields) may seem to be in crisis, but as has recently been pointed out by Anthony T. Grafton and Jim Grossman (2011), it is not, at least as the term crisis is usually defined. This job market situation has continued for many decades, and anything that has gone on for that long is hard to see as a crisis. It is more of a chronic problem than a crisis, and as with any chronic problem, the English profession has learned to live with it.
Economist David Colander published a study on the career paths of English PhDs in last month’s issue of Pedagogy.