The author reports on the academic job market that is showing signs of turning around after a multiyear slump. Job-outlook data released by professional associations in recent months show an uptick in the number of jobs available in several fields, including history, the humanities and foreign languages, sociology, geography, and political science. Yet some observers of the academic job market are not quite celebrating what sounds like good news. That is because the increases in openings are too modest to make a dent in the backlog of people with Ph.D.s looking to land a tenured or tenure-track job. It is still a buyer's market for many colleges that want to add new faces to the faculty. Tenure-track job openings in some fields often draw a couple of hundred applications, and part-time and non-tenure-track positions are on the rise.