---
title: "Education Teacher, Postsecondary"
description: "Teach courses pertaining to education, such as counseling, curriculum, guidance, instruction, teacher education, and teaching English as a second…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Education Teacher, Postsecondary

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-1081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-1081.00

Teach courses pertaining to education, such as counseling, curriculum, guidance, instruction, teacher education, and teaching English as a second language. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Also advertised as: Adjunct Instructor; Assistant Professor; Associate Professor; Education Instructor; Education Professor; Faculty Member; Instructor; Lecturer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $75,350 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,530 to $126,860, with the middle half between $53,770 and $97,590
- **Total US employment:** 60,830
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 26/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 60,830 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,530 |
| 25th | $53,770 |
| 50th (median) | $75,350 |
| 75th | $97,590 |
| 90th | $126,860 |
| Mean (average) | $79,350 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $111,850 | $101,021 | 3,100 |
| LA | $83,710 | $94,902 | 460 |
| NY | $82,020 | $76,000 | 5,430 |
| DC | $80,810 | $73,530 | 230 |
| CT | $80,620 | $77,811 | 900 |
| RI | $80,030 | $78,246 | 190 |
| MA | $79,980 | $75,626 | 2,050 |
| MI | $79,910 | $83,052 | 1,140 |
| MN | $78,950 | $80,054 | 950 |
| NE | $78,950 | $87,622 | 600 |
| MD | $78,820 | $75,096 | 870 |
| AZ | $78,520 | $77,992 | 1,590 |
| VT | $78,100 | $79,728 | 170 |
| NJ | $77,600 | $71,320 | 2,580 |
| ND | $77,540 | $87,164 | 230 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 77,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 79,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,900 jobs, or +2.5%. About as fast as average: 2.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 89.8% |
| Master's Degree | 9.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.6% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 0.1% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.1% |

## What the work involves

- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
- Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| I — Investigative | 4.77 |
| C — Conventional | 3.61 |
| A — Artistic | 3.47 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.68 |
| R — Realistic | 2.67 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 68.5 |
| INFJ | 66.7 |
| ENFP | 65.2 |
| ESFP | 61.9 |
| INFP | 60.9 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adult-basic-education-adult-secondary-education-and-english-as-a-second-language-instructor) — median $61,540
- [Teaching Assistant, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-postsecondary) — median $42,910
- [Sociology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sociology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $84,290
- [Social Work Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-work-teacher-postsecondary) — median $77,570
- [Psychology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Education Administrator, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-administrator-postsecondary) — median $104,590
- [Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-and-consumer-sciences-teacher-postsecondary) — median $75,870
- [Communications Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/communications-teacher-postsecondary) — median $78,580

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary