The Science news article reports that new STEM faculty jobs are at about a third of what they were last year. Like they say, universities, especially big public

The Science news article reports that new STEM faculty jobs are at about a third of what they were last year. Like they say, universities, especially big public ones have had their finances nuked by the pandemic and imposed hiring freezes. The other aspect isn't mentioned but I feel has to be the case, which is that if any faculty consider their retirement portfolio hurting they won't elect to retire. That was certainly true last Spring when they would need to initiate the process to retire and create an opening for this cycle. I'm glad I'm only finishing my first postdoc. It really sucks for people who are at the end of their second postdoc (year six post-PhD), which is effectively the limit for faculty hiring or additional postdocs. For them this is really the worst timing for the one critical year in their perhaps 15 year run-up from entering undergrad.