“The headline numbers might suggest the teacher recruitment crisis is easing, but the reality in schools is very different”

The latest annual report from Teacher Tapp and SchoolDash finds that the teacher labour market in England is undergoing a profound contraction.

The report was published after the 31 May resignation deadline, funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. This follow-up to the spring report provides the most complete picture yet of recruitment for the 2025/26 academic year. It draws on real-time job advert monitoring and daily survey responses from over 10,000 teachers. Findings revealed that secondary school teacher job advertisements are down 27 per cent compared to last year and 48 per cent lower than in 2018/19. This is the lowest level in the nine years for which data are available.

The report attributes this decline to a combination of reinforcing factors. Schools are anticipating falling pupil rolls. The incoming Year 7 cohort now smaller than the departing Year 11 cohort in many schools. At the same time, a weak wider UK labour market appears to be suppressing teacher turnover, reducing the number of replacement posts that need to be advertised. The decline is consistent across all secondary subjects. Even traditionally hard-to-recruit subjects, such as maths and science, are seeing adverts fall by around 20–28 per cent compared to last year.

Staffing pressures remain hidden

However, the fall in recruitment activity has not translated into better staffing for pupils. 21 per cent of primary teachers now report that their school is inadequately staffed with suitably qualified teachers. This is an increase of five percentage points when compared to both 2024 and 2025.

57 per cent of primary PPA time is now covered by non-teachers. 54 per cent of primary teachers also report that a class in their school is led by a short-term temporary, agency, or unqualified teacher. The nature of the staffing problem has changed. Schools are no longer struggling to fill advertised posts, but are instead absorbing shortfalls internally.

Timo Hannay, founder of SchoolDash, said:

“With the 31 May resignation deadline now behind us, we can see the full picture — and it confirms that secondary job adverts have fallen further still, down 27 per cent on last year and roughly half their 2018/19 level. That is the lowest in the nine years we have been tracking, below even the pandemic. The decline runs across every single subject, which tells us this is a systemic fall in demand rather than a shortage in any one area. And because there are so few posts to move to, teachers who might otherwise switch schools are staying put, which suppresses vacancies even further.”

Unequal recruitment and long-term risks

This year’s report also looks, for the first time, at how recruitment actually plays out for both the schools doing the hiring and the teachers applying. As the market has contracted, schools are finding it easier to recruit, but the benefits are sharply unequal. 61 per cent of fee-paying schools and 49 per cent of the most affluent state schools appointed a strong candidate this year. This compares to just 36 per cent of the most disadvantaged schools. The gap is driven by supply: disadvantaged schools attract markedly weaker applicant pools. Meanwhile, recruiting teachers from overseas remains marginal, undertaken by as few as 3 per cent of schools in some regions. And, hampered by the cost and bureaucracy of visa sponsorship, it’s doing little to relieve shortage-subject pressures.

Survey findings from Teacher Tapp also reveal a persistent shift in how teachers view their futures. Only 61 per cent now expect to remain in teaching for the next three years. This is down from around 75 per cent before the pandemic. This figure has stabilised since 2022 but shows no sign of recovering. The report warns that this creates a latent risk. A weak labour market is currently suppressing turnover, but if economic conditions improve and opportunities outside teaching increase, the combination of low commitment and pent-up desire to leave could trigger a sharp rise in departures.

The pipeline of future school leaders also continues to narrow. Just 37 per cent of deputy and assistant headteachers now aspire to headship. This is down from 55per cent in 2017. It raises longer-term concerns about leadership capacity across the system.

Professor Becky Allen, co-founder of Teacher Tapp, said:

“The headline numbers might suggest the teacher recruitment crisis is easing, but the reality in schools is very different. What we’re seeing is a labour market that has seized up. Schools know their intakes are shrinking, so they’re not replacing staff who leave — and with fewer opportunities elsewhere, fewer teachers are leaving in the first place. The danger is twofold. First, the staffing problem hasn’t gone away — it has gone underground, with more classes covered by non-specialists and more teachers reporting that their school lacks the qualified staff it needs. Second, even this tighter market is deeply unequal: the most advantaged schools still appoint a strong candidate far more often than the most disadvantaged, because disadvantaged schools simply attract weaker applicant pools. An easier market on paper is not an equal one.”

Jenni French, head of STEM in Schools at Gatsby Charitable Foundation, said:

“The findings from this report show more than numbers alone. The key test is whether all young people have access to high-quality, subject-specific teaching, especially in shortage subjects such as physics. Even with a large number of overseas trainees entering physics teacher training, schools are still struggling to secure enough specialist teachers, and international recruitment is not yet operating as a reliable solution to these long-standing shortages. It is concerning that disadvantaged schools continue to face the weakest applicant pools. A fall in advertised vacancies must not be mistaken for a problem solved.”