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The recruitment, development and retention of teachers and school leaders is a crucial underpinning for a successful education system. Ensuring there are sufficient numbers of high-quality teachers employed in schools is necessary for the school system to deliver a high-quality education for all children and young people, particularly as the Curriculum for Wales is being introduced. This annual Teacher Labour Market in Wales report aims to analyse the state of the Welsh teacher labour market by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher recruitment and retention. This is the first of three annual reports funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which will track changes over time.

In this report we analyse Welsh Government school census data on teacher recruitment and retention to assess the current state of the teacher labour market. In future years we aim to track what progress the school system is making towards resolving teacher supply issues, and draw comparisons with teacher recruitment and retention trends in England as new comparable school workforce data becomes available for the first time. Our analysis shows that the Welsh school system faces a substantial and growing challenge of ensuring there are sufficient numbers of teachers. The recruitment and retention challenge is most acute in secondary schools, in shortage subjects (such as Welsh, maths, science and modern foreign languages), in Welsh medium schools and in schools in areas with high levels of disadvantage.

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The 2020 [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on society, the economy and on the entire education sector. Teachers' workload, well-being, recruitment and retention have been affected by the national crisis. The aim of [National Foundation for Educational Research's] NFER's annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is to monitor the progress the school system in England is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions. This report remains focussed on these topics, although we have shifted to analysing new and different datasets to focus on the short-term impacts of the pandemic on the teacher workforce rather than on the longer-running trends.

In this report we present new insights on the impact of the pandemic on teachers' well-being, workload, perceived job security and pay. We use the Labour Force Survey (LFS), Annual Population Survey (APS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) COVID-19 surveys to measure changes in the working conditions and well-being of teachers throughout 2020. Crucially, using these household surveys means that we can compare the impact of the pandemic on teachers with the impact on similar individuals in other professions. We present data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) on postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) applications to explore the impact of the COVID-induced recession on interest in entering teaching. We also present new insights from an NFER survey of school leaders, which was conducted in autumn 2020, on their experiences of recruitment and retention during the pandemic.

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The recruitment, development and retention of teachers and school leaders is a crucial underpinning for a successful education system. However, England's school system faces a substantial and growing challenge of ensuring there are sufficient numbers of high-quality teachers employed in schools. Meeting this supply challenge is necessary for the school system to deliver a high-quality education for all children and young people. [National Foundation for Educational Research's] NFER's annual Teacher Labour Market report aims to monitor the progress the school system is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions. We analyse [Department for Education] DfE census data on teacher recruitment and retention to assess the current state of the teacher labour market. We also present new analysis of the latest data on teachers' working conditions, and how they compare to similar individuals in other professions, from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS).

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The teacher recruitment and retention challenge in England has significantly intensified since the [Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)] pandemic. Recruitment to initial teacher training (ITT) was considerably below target last year across a range of subjects and as of February 2023, this year's ITT recruitment is likely to be little better than last year, while teacher vacancies are significantly higher than the year before the pandemic. The recent trends in recruitment and retention affirm that addressing recruitment and retention should be an urgent policy priority in order to ensure schools have sufficient staff to provide a high quality education for pupils in England.

The aim of this annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports is to monitor the progress the school system in England is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge. This report summarises the key trends in teacher recruitment, retention and working conditions. The findings also point towards areas where policy actions are likely to have the greatest impact on addressing the challenges.

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The recruitment, development and retention of teachers and school leaders is a crucial underpinning for a successful education system. However, England's school system faces a substantial and growing challenge of ensuring there are sufficient numbers of high-quality teachers employed in schools. Meeting this supply challenge is necessary for the school system to deliver a high-quality education for all children and young people. This first annual report on the state of the teacher workforce measures the key indicators of the teacher labour market and teachers' working conditions. We present data from a range of sources, which together highlight the trends that describe the current teacher supply situation and how it has changed over time.

Teachers' working conditions are a fundamental lever to effecting change over teacher recruitment and retention, so we also present data on teachers' working conditions and how they compare to similar individuals in other professional occupations. This report summarises the state of the teacher workforce using the most recent available data when the strategy was published. In future reports we will update the summary using the latest available data, measuring changes in these key indicators of teacher supply and working conditions. We aim to monitor the progress the school system is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge over the next decade.

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While the [Coronavirus Disease 2029] COVID-19 pandemic somewhat eased the teacher supply challenge in the short term in England, a resurgence in the wider labour market since pandemic restrictions began lifting in 2021 means the pressure on teacher supply witnessed before the pandemic has resumed. Improving teachers' pay and working conditions to make it an attractive and rewarding graduate career choice should be a policy priority once again. The aim of the National Foundation for Educational Research's (NFER) annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is to monitor the progress the school system in England is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions. This report assesses the state of teacher supply as the pandemic's immediate impacts recede, as well as outlining the impacts of the pandemic on teachers' working lives.

In this report, we present data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) on postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) applications to assess the impact of the resurgent wider labour market on interest in entering teaching. We also explore the latest retention trends and present new insights from an NFER survey of school leaders, conducted in autumn 2021, on their experiences of recruitment and retention during the pandemic. Within this teacher supply context, we assess the Department for Education's (DfE) proposals on teacher pay for 2022 and 2023. We also present insights on teachers' workload and well-being throughout the pandemic, using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS). Crucially, using these household surveys means that we can compare the workload and well-being of teachers with similar individuals in other professions. Further details about the data sources used and definitions is in a separate methodology appendix.

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