The author of that article is acting as though there were only two types of employees at a university: faculty and administrative. Yet this is false, faculty are "team leaders" managing a team of scientific staff (non-faculty). Typically (besides PhD students) postdocs and research scientists.
For instance, one university has:
- faculty 6% (the actual professors and associate professors running things)
- postdocs 9% (faculty/staff scientist aspirants with a PhD)
- research staff 25% (e.g. research engineer, research scientist)
- other academic staff 12% (I imagine, technicians)
- admin staff 28%
So, while faculty is only 6% of the overall workforce, scientific employees still make up 52% of the lot. Add to that the PhD students who are not counted as employees in the US despite being paid and having employee duties towards their superior (a member of faculty). This same university has about 40% of the number of employees worth of graduate students (7k to the 17k), for instance.
In conclusion, what the statistics you report show, is rather how precarious research has become. There existed no such thing as a postdoc in the 70s; my advisor's advisor, who was recruited in that decade, had already signed a contract for tenured employment before his PhD was even over, as did many of his peers. Nowadays, it's typical to postdoc for a minimum of 3 years, and then play the odds, which are not in the candidate's favour as the 6% faculty to 9% postdoc hints at.
For instance, one university has:
- faculty 6% (the actual professors and associate professors running things)
- postdocs 9% (faculty/staff scientist aspirants with a PhD)
- research staff 25% (e.g. research engineer, research scientist)
- other academic staff 12% (I imagine, technicians)
- admin staff 28%
So, while faculty is only 6% of the overall workforce, scientific employees still make up 52% of the lot. Add to that the PhD students who are not counted as employees in the US despite being paid and having employee duties towards their superior (a member of faculty). This same university has about 40% of the number of employees worth of graduate students (7k to the 17k), for instance.
In conclusion, what the statistics you report show, is rather how precarious research has become. There existed no such thing as a postdoc in the 70s; my advisor's advisor, who was recruited in that decade, had already signed a contract for tenured employment before his PhD was even over, as did many of his peers. Nowadays, it's typical to postdoc for a minimum of 3 years, and then play the odds, which are not in the candidate's favour as the 6% faculty to 9% postdoc hints at.