Advertisements for job openings in higher education rose 40.2 percent in the first quarter of 2011 from a year earlier and even exceeded pre-recession levels, according to a new report from HigherEdJobs, the leading source for jobs and career information in academia.

The number of jobs in higher education, as well as its percentage of all U.S. jobs, continues to grow and is outpacing growth in the U.S. economy as a whole. According to the analysis by HigherEdJobs of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of jobs in higher education in Q1 2011 was 3.3 percent higher than in Q1 2010. This is the fastest first quarter rise in the number of higher education jobs since 2002. Higher education jobs represented about 1.4 percent of all non-farm jobs in Q1 2011; before the recession in 2007, it was about 1.2 percent.

The report also found that colleges and universities continued to focus on hiring administrators and executives over faculty. However, in absolute numbers, recruiting for all position types – including faculty – is up. In addition, hiring and employment at community colleges in Q1 2011 continued to outpace growth at four-year institutions, according to HigherEdJobs.

From a geographic perspective, higher education job postings increased in all regions of the country, with the greatest growth observed in the West North Central and New England regions, and weakest in the West South Central area.

The report examines job posting data from colleges and universities that have been continuously subscribed to HigherEdJobs' unlimited posting plan for four years or longer, a cohort of over 700 schools, as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.