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Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a single-panel proposal: "Any job that goes unappreciated should be expressed in units of weight." A university administrator is on the phone saying, "Hi, we need some adjunct professors to teach intro courses. Yeah, it's four classes, so we need about five hundred pounds worth."
The joke is that adjunct professors are so undervalued and underpaid that their labor is being quantified by weight -- as if they are a bulk commodity rather than skilled professionals. Ordering "five hundred pounds worth" of adjunct professors treats them like a raw material purchased in bulk, stripping away any sense of individual expertise or professional dignity.
The Humor
The humor comes from the absurd dehumanization of expressing labor in units of weight, which serves as a sharp commentary on how adjunct professors are treated in academia. Adjuncts typically receive very low pay, no benefits, and little job security despite often doing the same teaching work as full-time faculty. By having the administrator casually order them by the pound like ground beef, the comic highlights how universities treat adjunct labor as a cheap, interchangeable commodity. The proposal framing ("any job that goes unappreciated") makes it clear this is social satire about undervalued professions.