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Employment Snapshot
Preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and secondary school teachers,
except special education, held about 4.0 million jobs in 2006. Of the teachers in those
jobs, about 1.5 million are elementary school teachers, 1.1 million are secondary school
teachers, 674,000 are middle school teachers, 437,000 are preschool teachers, and 170,000
are kindergarten teachers. The vast majority work in elementary and secondary schools.
Preschool teachers, except special education, are most often employed in child daycare
services (59 percent), public and private educational services (16 percent), and religious
organizations (15 percent). Employment of teachers is geographically distributed much the
same as the population.
Job Outlook
Employment of preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers
is projected to grow about as fast as average. Job prospects are expected to be favorable,
with particularly good prospects for teachers in high-demand fields like math, science, and
bilingual education, or in less desirable urban or rural school districts.
Employment change. Employment of school teachers is expected to grow by 12 percent
between 2006 and 2016, about as fast as the average for all occupations. However, because of
the size of the occupations in this group, this growth will create 479,000 additional
teacher positions, more than all but a few occupations.
Through 2016, overall student enrollments in elementary, middle, and secondary schools—a
key factor in the demand for teachers—are expected to rise more slowly than in the past as
children of the baby boom generation leave the school system. This will cause employment of
teachers from kindergarten through the secondary grades to grow as fast as the average.
Projected enrollments will vary by region. Fast-growing States in the South and West—led by
Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Georgia—will experience the largest enrollment increases.
Enrollments in the Midwest are expected to hold relatively steady, while those in the
Northeast are expected to decline. Teachers who are geographically mobile and who obtain
licensure in more than one subject should have a distinct advantage in finding a job.
The number of teachers employed is dependent on State and local expenditures for
education and on the enactment of legislation to increase the quality and scope of public
education. At the Federal level, there has been a large increase in funding for education,
particularly for the hiring of qualified teachers in lower income areas. Also, some States
are instituting programs to improve early childhood education, such as offering full day
kindergarten and universal preschool. These programs, along with projected higher enrollment
growth for preschool age children, will create many new jobs for preschool teachers, which
are expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations.
Job prospects. Job opportunities for teachers over the next 10 years will vary
from good to excellent, depending on the locality, grade level, and subject taught. Most job
openings will result from the need to replace the large number of teachers who are expected
to retire over the 2006-16 period. Also, many beginning teachers decide to leave teaching
for other careers after a year or two—especially those employed in poor, urban
schools—creating additional job openings for teachers.
The job market for teachers also continues to vary by school location and by subject
taught. Job prospects should be better in inner cities and rural areas than in suburban
districts. Many inner cities—often characterized by overcrowded, ill-equipped schools and
higher-than-average poverty rates—and rural areas—characterized by their remote location and
relatively low salaries—have difficulty attracting and retaining enough teachers. Currently,
many school districts have difficulty hiring qualified teachers in some subject areas—most
often mathematics, science (especially chemistry and physics), bilingual education, and
foreign languages. Increasing enrollments of minorities, coupled with a shortage of minority
teachers, should cause efforts to recruit minority teachers to intensify. Also, the number
of non-English-speaking students will continue to grow, creating demand for bilingual
teachers and for those who teach English as a second language. Qualified vocational teachers
also are currently in demand in a variety of fields at both the middle school and secondary
school levels. Specialties that have an adequate number of qualified teachers include
general elementary education, physical education, and social studies.
The supply of teachers is expected to increase in response to reports of improved job
prospects, better pay, more teacher involvement in school policy, and greater public
interest in education. In addition, more teachers may be drawn from a reserve pool of career
changers, substitute teachers, and teachers completing alternative certification programs.
In recent years, the total number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees granted in education
has been increasing slowly. But many States have implemented policies that will encourage
even more students to become teachers because of a shortage of teachers in certain locations
and in anticipation of the loss of a number of teachers to retirement.
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook 2008-2009 -
Teachers—Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary. |
