Demographics are also on the side of candidates, these days, as whole swatches of 60s-era hires are retiring. My department, alone, might be filling three retirement positions this year. Add these retirement replacements to the new positions and it actually, finally seems like a good time to be on the market!
It will be interesting to see how much support the institutions then provide for these new folks. I worked at one of the institutions named above - just for a year, but the impression I got was that the school nickle and dimed everyone to death. From various gossip, I got the sense they talked the talk but didn't walk the walk - they wanted the prestige and esteem implied by the kinds of hirings describe in the article, but weren't really willing to put any money into it beyond the hirings, so in essence didn't give those new hires much to work with.
Of course, this was just one school. And I could just be cynical. 
I'm an NYU alum, so I just got hit with a big pile of campaign-kickoff material that includes the 125 new hires. And I'm thinking, fantastic. About time.
But here's the question, and I can't find any info about this anywhere: are these new positions tenure-track, or are they the new untenured "teaching faculty" positions Sexton was talking about creating last year?
I heard that the Baby Boomers' & Genx's kids are now beginning to hit college age & will force colleges & universities to hire new faculty. I know that Flatlands U has had record or near record enrollment for the last 3 years & that some departments are scrambling for instructors. FU's Chemistry dept has even recalled my 80 year old dad to come out of retirement to teach a section of Intro to Chemistry with over 300 students.
So maybe there will be a t-t job for me by the time I finally graduate!
Commenting by HaloScan
