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How difficult is it to gain employment as a college professor?

Assuming a person has a doctorate degree as well as the drive and determination to do their job well, how hard is it to gain employment as a college professor? Specifically in Ohio, if that data is available.

Public Comments

1. Some fields also require work experience or postdoctoral experience after the PhD before they'll hire you, and they'll all require publications in your field and the ability to bring in grant money. Depending on the field, there are between 5 and 20 times as many people applying for faculty jobs as there are jobs available - it's very hard to get a job as a professor, and if you're lucky enough to get one, you can't be picky about where you life. You go where the job takes you, even if that's the middle of nowhere, Nebraska or Alaska. Have a backup plan for something else you can do with your PhD if you can't get a faculty job.
2. Unfortunately, as the words of the poem The Private Meditations of John Wyclif: On Angels, says "...the only way to fit another scholar in is by one of us dying." Professors are there for life. My son is a PhD student with the goal of a professorship. He knows someone has to die for him to get it! It probably isn't that bad, some must retire. But, with the cuts to school budgets right now, they aren't apt to hire extras.
3. A PhD in the humanities only has about a 1 in 20 chance of eventually becoming a professor. In the sciences, about 50:50 for the ones that do not go to work in industry or government. My daughter is in her second semester of her PhD in civil engineering and has already been offered a tenure track faculty position as soon as she gets her PhD.