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Teacher vacancy rate

Percentage of teacher posts in state-funded schools in England that are vacant.

1.9 %
+8.30pp vs previous period

As of 2024

Historical trend

1.2 1.5 1.9 201720212024

Trend summary

There were approximately 2,300 teacher vacancies in state-funded schools in England in November 2023, a vacancy rate of around 0.5%.

Trend

  • Teacher vacancy rates rose from around 0.2–0.3% pre-pandemic to a peak of 0.8% in late 2021–22, and have since declined.
  • Secondary schools and schools in London consistently show higher vacancy rates than primary schools and schools in other regions.
  • STEM and modern foreign languages subjects have persistently higher vacancy rates than other subjects.

Context

  • DfE publishes school workforce statistics annually; vacancy figures are a snapshot from a single census day in November.
  • Vacancy statistics cover full-time equivalent teacher vacancies; they do not capture unfilled hours covered by supply or non-specialist teachers.

Trend summary generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 on 6 June 2024. Contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.

About this indicator

Update frequency
Annual
Last updated
20 June 2024 Data may be out of date
Licence
OGL v3
Rising trend is…
Negative

Statistics

Latest
1.9 %
Period high
1.9
Period low
1.2
Period average
1.6