quasar

Yes, the American politics market is usually more of a seller's market than the other subfields. It's simple supply and demand. Every year, just about every top department wants to hire an Americanist. But only a handful of departments are looking for Japan scholars, or Africanists, etc. On the other hand, the PhD's produced by top departments don't reflect this imbalance -- lots of graduate students want to study civil wars, China, and other comparative topics. So there is a bit of an imbalance between what graduate students choose to specialize in, and what departments are looking to hire in. Caveat: The flip side of all this is that the American politics job market is very competitive and very top-heavy. Every department is always looking to hire Americanists, but there are also lots of Americanist PhD's on the market, and every department wants to hire only the very best of these PhD's. The result is that usually, a small number of superstar PhD's are getting most of the top job offers, and everyone else scrambles for the scraps. Bottom line: If you're a superstar, then being in the Americanist job market is sweet. But if you're not a star, then you might be better off being in one of the "niche" markets, like China, Africa, Japan, and so on. Of course, it's impossible to know at the outset of graduate school whether you'll become one of the superstars...