With the September employment data in hand, we can look at the number of teachers who are starting work or going back to school this year. The number of teachers and education staff fell dramatically during the Great Recession and has failed to get anywhere near its prerecession level, let alone the level that would be required to keep up with an expanding student population. In addition to losses from the Great Recession, the pursuit of austerity at all levels of government has meant that public education jobs are still 214,000 less than they were eight years ago. Over the last year, the number of teachers rose by 37,700. While this is clearly a positive sign, if we include the number of jobs that should have been created just to keep up with enrollment, we are currently experiencing a 372,000 job shortfall in public education. The costs of a significant teacher gap are measurable: larger class sizes, fewer teacher aides, fewer extracurricular activities, and changes to the curricula. Shortsighted austerity measures at all levels of government hit children in today’s classrooms.

The Teacher Gap Teacher employment and the number of jobs needed to keep up with enrollment, 2003–2016 Local public education employment Jobs needed to keep up with student enrollment 2003-01-01 7.6974 2003-02-01 7.6974 2003-03-01 7.6912 2003-04-01 7.6985 2003-05-01 7.6950 2003-06-01 7.7315 2003-07-01 7.7791 2003-08-01 7.7252 2003-09-01 7.6675 2003-10-01 7.7165 2003-11-01 7.7025 2003-12-01 7.7031 2004-01-01 7.7120 2004-02-01 7.7199 2004-03-01 7.7483 2004-04-01 7.7538 2004-05-01 7.7767 2004-06-01 7.7607 2004-07-01 7.7575 2004-08-01 7.7669 2004-09-01 7.7743 2004-10-01 7.7828 2004-11-01 7.7975 2004-12-01 7.8032 2005-01-01 7.8219 2005-02-01 7.8311 2005-03-01 7.8209 2005-04-01 7.8294 2005-05-01 7.8402 2005-06-01 7.8188 2005-07-01 7.9047 2005-08-01 7.9073 2005-09-01 7.8787 2005-10-01 7.8646 2005-11-01 7.8756 2005-12-01 7.8830 2006-01-01 7.8822 2006-02-01 7.8869 2006-03-01 7.8906 2006-04-01 7.8961 2006-05-01 7.8839 2006-06-01 7.8678 2006-07-01 7.8999 2006-08-01 7.9352 2006-09-01 7.9726 2006-10-01 7.9502 2006-11-01 7.9545 2006-12-01 7.9568 2007-01-01 7.9598 2007-02-01 7.9533 2007-03-01 7.9563 2007-04-01 7.9654 2007-05-01 7.9743 2007-06-01 7.9646 2007-07-01 7.9457 2007-08-01 7.9918 2007-09-01 8.0086 2007-10-01 8.0230 2007-11-01 8.0344 2007-12-01 8.0547 2008-01-01 8.0535 2008-02-01 8.0647 2008-03-01 8.0679 2008-04-01 8.0620 2008-05-01 8.0781 2008-06-01 8.0862 2008-07-01 8.1194 2008-08-01 8.0919 2008-09-01 8.0853 8.0853 8.0853 2008-10-01 8.0898 8.0869 8.0853 2008-11-01 8.0828 8.0886 8.0853 2008-12-01 8.0836 8.0902 8.0853 2009-01-01 8.0840 8.0918 8.0853 2009-02-01 8.0967 8.0935 8.0853 2009-03-01 8.0937 8.0951 8.0853 2009-04-01 8.0916 8.0967 8.0853 2009-05-01 8.0882 8.0984 8.0853 2009-06-01 8.1084 8.1000 8.0853 2009-07-01 8.0667 8.1016 8.0853 2009-08-01 8.0619 8.1033 8.0853 2009-09-01 8.0123 8.1049 8.0853 2009-10-01 8.0737 8.1065 8.0853 2009-11-01 8.0991 8.1082 8.0853 2009-12-01 8.0716 8.1098 8.0853 2010-01-01 8.0685 8.1114 8.0853 2010-02-01 8.0570 8.1131 8.0853 2010-03-01 8.0580 8.1147 8.0853 2010-04-01 8.0563 8.1164 8.0853 2010-05-01 8.0624 8.1180 8.0853 2010-06-01 8.0486 8.1196 8.0853 2010-07-01 8.0263 8.1213 8.0853 2010-08-01 7.9971 8.1229 8.0853 2010-09-01 7.9192 8.1245 8.0853 2010-10-01 7.9637 8.1262 8.0853 2010-11-01 7.9615 8.1278 8.0853 2010-12-01 7.9535 8.1295 8.0853 2011-01-01 7.9436 8.1311 8.0853 2011-02-01 7.9296 8.1327 8.0853 2011-03-01 7.9249 8.1344 8.0853 2011-04-01 7.9367 8.1360 8.0853 2011-05-01 7.8987 8.1377 8.0853 2011-06-01 7.9605 8.1393 8.0853 2011-07-01 7.8620 8.1409 8.0853 2011-08-01 7.8212 8.1426 8.0853 2011-09-01 7.7980 8.1442 8.0853 2011-10-01 7.8279 8.1459 8.0853 2011-11-01 7.8147 8.1475 8.0853 2011-12-01 7.8042 8.1492 8.0853 2012-01-01 7.7970 8.1508 8.0853 2012-02-01 7.7991 8.1525 8.0853 2012-03-01 7.7955 8.1541 8.0853 2012-04-01 7.7815 8.1557 8.0853 2012-05-01 7.7720 8.1574 8.0853 2012-06-01 7.7759 8.1590 8.0853 2012-07-01 7.7708 8.1607 8.0853 2012-08-01 7.7818 8.1623 8.0853 2012-09-01 7.7706 8.1640 8.0853 2012-10-01 7.7575 8.1656 8.0853 2012-11-01 7.7530 8.1673 8.0853 2012-12-01 7.7718 8.1689 8.0853 2013-01-01 7.7703 8.1706 8.0853 2013-02-01 7.7703 8.1722 8.0853 2013-03-01 7.7753 8.1739 8.0853 2013-04-01 7.7679 8.1755 8.0853 2013-05-01 7.7772 8.1772 8.0853 2013-06-01 7.7539 8.1788 8.0853 2013-07-01 7.7598 8.1805 8.0853 2013-08-01 7.7830 8.1821 8.0853 2013-09-01 7.7861 8.1838 8.0853 2013-10-01 7.7793 8.1854 8.0853 2013-11-01 7.7826 8.1871 8.0853 2013-12-01 7.7610 8.1887 8.0853 2014-01-01 7.7619 8.1904 8.0853 2014-02-01 7.7626 8.1920 8.0853 2014-03-01 7.7737 8.1937 8.0853 2014-04-01 7.7963 8.1953 8.0853 2014-05-01 7.7807 8.1970 8.0853 2014-06-01 7.8123 8.1986 8.0853 2014-07-01 7.8032 8.2003 8.0853 2014-08-01 7.7912 8.2019 8.0853 2014-09-01 7.8327 8.2036 8.0853 2014-10-01 7.8198 8.2053 8.0853 2014-11-01 7.8168 8.2069 8.0853 2014-12-01 7.8184 8.2086 8.0853 2015-01-01 7.8227 8.2102 8.0853 2015-02-01 7.8251 8.2119 8.0853 2015-03-01 7.8160 8.2135 8.0853 2015-04-01 7.8167 8.2152 8.0853 2015-05-01 7.8258 8.2168 8.0853 2015-06-01 7.8224 8.2185 8.0853 2015-07-01 7.8508 8.2202 8.0853 2015-08-01 7.8643 8.2218 8.0853 2015-09-01 7.8336 8.2235 8.0853 2015-10-01 7.8214 8.2251 8.0853 2015-11-01 7.8148 8.2268 8.0853 2015-12-01 7.8135 8.2285 8.0853 2016-01-01 7.8174 8.2301 8.0853 2016-02-01 7.8120 8.2318 8.0853 2016-03-01 7.8185 8.2334 8.0853 2016-04-01 7.8182 8.2351 8.0853 2016-05-01 7.8256 8.2368 8.0853 2016-06-01 7.8376 8.2384 8.0853 2016-07-01 7.8701 8.2401 8.0853 2016-08-01 7.8856 8.2417 8.0853 2016-09-01 7.8713 8.2434 8.0853 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: EPI analysis of Current Employment Statistics public data series and U.S. Department of Education (2015) Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image