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Final data from this year’s teacher recruitment season confirms slowdown
The full set of data from 2024/25 shows evidence of a more sustained decline in the teacher jobs market
The update to the latest annual report from Teacher Tapp and Schooldash on trends in teacher recruitment in England—which follows the closure of the recruitment season on 31 May—confirms the interim findings published in the Spring. Recruitment is lower in all areas of teaching, and the decline the number of teaching job vacancies reflects the slow down being seen in the wider labour market.
The report, which is commissioned annually by Gatsby concludes that in the teacher recruitment season 2024/25:
Secondary teacher recruitment is significantly lower than in recent years. Job advertisements for secondary school roles are down 36% compared to last year, and 27% lower than in the pre-pandemic 2018/19 academic year.
Both supply- and demand-side factors are contributing to the current slowdown in secondary teacher recruitment. Fewer teachers are changing jobs while at the same time, schools—particularly in areas like London—are anticipating future declines in pupil numbers and are responding with more cautious staffing plans.
Falling pupil numbers are reducing demand for primary teachers. Primary schools—especially in London and the North East—are responding to demographic decline and budgetary pressures by reducing staff numbers, merging classes, or increasing senior leaders’ teaching responsibilities.
Commitment to the profession remains significantly lower than it was before the pandemic. The proportion of teachers who expect to still be in the profession in three years has fallen from around 75% before the pandemic to approximately 60% today.
Detailed socio-economic context beyond FSMs makes a difference. While traditional measures of disadvantage explain much of the variation in school recruitment activity and survey responses, other socio-economic factors appear to have an impact.
The final data from this year reinforces the emerging picture we reported in April. With no uptick over the Spring, the figures show a more sustained slowing down in activity. This report shows that even small changes—more teachers staying in post and actual or predicted reductions in student numbers—have quite big knock on effects in the number of vacancies.