Within the field of history, the graph at the beginning of this post from the AHA shows that the 1970s was an absolutely terrible decade: https://www.historians

Within the field of history, the graph at the beginning of this post from the AHA shows that the 1970s was an absolutely terrible decade: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2010/a-grim-year-on-the-academic-job-market-for-historians https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/pers... What happened was a big drop in the number of new PhDs. That is why the 1980s and early 1990s might have had okay job markets. By about 1991/1992 the job market was once again saturated.