One of the key issues facing early career researchers today and our profession as a whole is the profound casualisation of academia. Job security appears a thing of the past, yet at the same time we seem to be working longer hours, writing more books and articles and generally taking on a greater workload than ever before. Is this a new phenomenon facing historians today or is there a longer history? This panel will discuss the increasing precarity of the historical profession. Panellists will provide an insight into the history of casualisation in the tertiary sector in Australia, employment patterns over the past few decades, and the challenges of carving out a successful career on sessional contracts.