National Trends

Introduction

Teachers are the backbone of our education system. The successful education of Australia’s children and young people relies on the dedication and expertise of our teacher workforce. Data presented in this report contributes to an understanding of who Australia’s teachers are and what their workforce experiences look like, as well as how the workforce may be changing over time. The National Trends: Teacher Workforce publication contains interpretations of key national trends from 2019 to 2023 and raises important considerations for policymakers about factors affecting the teacher workforce in Australia, including trends in:

• demographics and roles, to examine changes in the make-up of Australia’s teachers
• employment conditions, including employment arrangements, working hours, and tasks that take up teachers’ time
• career intentions and pressures on teachers, to help anticipate likely attrition and identify areas in which teachers require further support.

The National Trends: Teacher Workforce publication is updated annually as new data is released in the Data Portal. A separate National Trends: ITE Pipeline publication provides insights into the progression of initial teacher education (ITE) students through the ITE pipeline and is also updated annually.

Australian Teacher Workforce Survey data

The ATWD connects different sources of data to provide a national and consistent picture of the teacher workforce across Australia. The Australian Teacher Workforce Survey (Teacher Survey), a key source of data, is distributed to every registered teacher, via teacher regulatory authorities (TRAs). The Teacher Survey is administered annually between August and November (the survey period varies by state/territory). Given that all registered teachers have the opportunity to participate, the Teacher Survey provides the best available data on the experiences of Australia’s teacher workforce.

Participation in the Teacher Survey has grown from 16,583 respondents in 2018 (with 3 states and territories participating) to 50,556 respondents in 2023 (see Table 1). Of the 50,556 respondents who provided usable data in 2023, 24,241 were first time respondents and 26,315 were repeat respondents. The repeat respondents had completed an average of 1.7 previous surveys.

Over the 6 years that the Teacher Survey has taken place, there have been a total of 145,065 unique respondents, of whom 139,685 were still registered in 2023. This means that 26.2% of all registered teachers have completed the survey at some point.

Repeat respondents are valuable for understanding career pathways. A total of 46,068 currently registered teachers have participated in the survey in multiple years. Survey participation in consecutive years is particularly valuable, as it provides time-specific information which will allow analysis of career progression, movement between schools, and changes in workforce experiences. From 2018 to 2023, there were 29,229 instances of survey participation in two consecutive years. One third (32.9%) of participants in the 2022 survey also participated in the 2023 survey.

Although 2019 data is provided in this report, Teacher Survey responses in 2019 were not from every state and territory, so differences from 2019 to later years may not reflect a change over time. Instead, it might reflect participation of people in the additional jurisdictions and the unique aspects of the policy and work environment that teachers and leaders are operating within. Furthermore, while 2019 data are included in this report as an indicator of pre-COVID workforce experiences, these data are shaded differently compared to later years, as a reminder to the reader to be cautious in interpreting data from this year in comparison to other data points.

Table 1: Australian Teacher Survey responses, 2018-2023

Percentages derived from the Teacher Survey for each year come from weighted counts of individual respondents. The use of weighted data allows the ATWD to more accurately report data on the teacher workforce. It does this by correcting for the over- or under-representation of known demographics (e.g., age and gender) of registered teachers within a state and territory, and the number of responses from each state and territory. Since 2020, when national data became available, additional alignment has improved the accuracy of these weighted counts. This alignment proportionally adjusts representation based on TRA data from each state and territory, and aligns teacher and leader characteristics with the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC).^[6]

Because data reported here are based on weighted counts, the sample size or number of responses per survey question is not provided. The raw sample/response numbers would not align with the weighted proportions, and therefore do not provide meaningful information in context. It is also important to note that data are not reported for groups which could lead to respondents becoming identifiable, or where data would be unreliable due to the small numbers of survey respondents.

All registered teachers

All teachers must be registered to teach or hold alternative authorisation to teach if they are teaching or leading in schools. Many early childhood teachers are also registered with teacher regulatory authorities, but this is not required in non-school-based early childhood settings in Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. To register as a teacher, individuals must be qualified with an accredited ITE qualification (or equilvalent) and meet the relevant requirements in accordance with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. However, not all registered teachers are necessarily working in the profession, with some employed elsewhere in education or outside of the sector, and others may not be participating in the workforce at all.

Most (81%) registered teachers^[7] held full registration in 2023. Provisional registration, which is most commonly held by early career teachers, accounted for 12% of registered teachers in 2023. Alternative authorisation to teach accounted for 4% of teachers.

Size of the registered workforce

In 2023, the size of the registered workforce was made up of approximately 553,300 teachers. This estimate accounts for the 2.7% of registered teachers who were registered in multiple states.

The number of teachers registered in each state and territory is in line with their relative population sizes in 2023 (ABS, 2024). Teachers can be registered in more than one state and the number of multi-state registrations vary across jurisdictions (Table 3). Where multi-state registration is more common, such as in the NT (33.8%) and the ACT (14.7%), the number of teachers available to teach in those jurisdictions is likely to be smaller, as some of these registered teachers will be working elsewhere.

Table 3: State of registration, 2023

Structure of the workforce

The ATWD provides insight into the roles of registered teachers,^[10] including where they work and who they teach. This includes both registered teachers who are deployed^[11] in schools and early learning centres, and those not actively teaching (the non-teacher workforce).

Based on survey responses, the structure of the workforce in 2023 reveals that around one-fifth (19%) of registered teachers were not actively employed as teachers or leaders (for more detail on the workforce structure, see below). This proportion has tended to increase a little over time, with a higher overall proportion of registered teachers on leave in 2022-2023 than in previous years.

A focus of this report will be the “teacher workforce”, which includes teachers and leaders deployed in schools and early childhood settings,^[12] as well as casual/relief teachers. The largest group within the teacher workforce are school-deployed classroom teachers (52%),^[13] and so their characteristics and experiences will be highlighted throughout the report. Given that school leaders, who make up a quarter of the teacher workforce, have markedly different workplace skills and experiences, information on both middle leaders^[14] (17% of the teacher workforce) and senior leaders^[15] (8% of the teacher workforce) in schools is also provided. Data relating to those deployed in an early childhood setting (7% of the teacher workforce) is provided where the sample sizes are large enough to allow for it. For more information, read the In Focus report on early childhood teachers.

The school-deployed workforce (that is, teachers and leaders in schools, excluding CRTs) are distributed throughout sectors, school types, and regions across Australia (explore the data in more detail below). Most schools (70%)^[16] are government schools, and most (64%) of the school-deployed workforce^[17] are employed in government schools. The distribution of the workforce across school types reflects the needs of different schools. That is, primary schools tend to be smaller than secondary schools. As such, while 64% of schools are primary and 15% are secondary, since secondary schools cater to more students, they typically have proportionally higher numbers of both teachers and leaders; 40% of the school-deployed workforce are deployed in primary schools and 36% are in secondary schools. While the proportion of classroom teachers in each school type closely matches those of the school-deployed workforce, proportions differ for school leaders. Specifically, 45% of middle leaders are in secondary schools and 24% are in primary, while 59% of senior leaders are in primary schools and 22% are in secondary.

Geographical variation in population distribution also affects school sizes and, therefore, staff deployment. While 6% of schools are in remote/very remote locations, 2% of the school-deployed workforce are in remote/very remote schools. More than half (55%) of all schools are in major cities, and these schools employ 71% of the total school-deployed workforce.

Teacher workforce

Understanding the characteristics and experiences of the Australian teacher workforce is important to building an effective, sustainable, supported, and high-quality teacher workforce that can deliver a world class education system. This section provides detail on the whole teacher workforce across schools and early learning centres, with additional data provided for subgroups including classroom teachers, middle and senior leaders in schools, teachers and leaders in early childhood settings, early career teachers (i.e., those in their first 5 years of teaching), casual/relief teachers (CRTs), and the regional and remote workforce.

Demographics and experience

Understanding the demographics and experience levels of our teachers, and trends in these characteristics over time, is important to gain a clear picture of the current workforce. This section outlines trends in the age, gender, and years of teaching experience of teachers and leaders.

Demographics

Teacher workforce

As shown in Figure 1 the age distribution of the teacher workforce remained stable over the 2019-2023 period. In 2023, 17% of the teacher workforce were aged 60 or above, and therefore approaching (or exceeding) retirement age.^[18] Around half (51%) of the teacher workforce were aged between 30 and 49 years.

In terms of gender, most of the teacher workforce are women (78% in 2023), and this has remained relatively stable over time.

Figure 1: Age distribution of the teacher workforce, 2019-2023^[19]

Subgroups

Table 4 shows the 2023 age and gender breakdown for classroom teachers in schools, teachers deployed in an early childhood setting, early career teachers,^[20] CRTs, middle and senior leaders, and the workforce in remote and very remote, inner or outer regional, or major city locations. While the proportions in each age band are broadly similar to those for the overall teacher workforce, there are some notable differences. School-deployed classroom teachers and teachers working in remote/very remote locations had a higher representation of teachers aged 29 years or younger. A higher proportion of the teachers deployed in an early childhood setting were aged 30-39 years. In contrast, a higher proportion of CRTs were in the older age brackets, with around 40% aged over 60 (24% aged 60-69, 17% aged 69+). The reasons for these age-related patterns likely overlap with those for patterns related to the years of experience in the teaching profession, explained below.

Table 4 also highlights the presence of mid-career changers entering the teaching profession. While most early career teachers in 2023 were under 30, around a fifth (21%) were aged 40 or over. The proportions of early career teachers in each age bracket remained relatively stable over the 2019-2023 period.

The gender composition is comparable for all subgroups in Table 4 except those deployed in early childhood settings, which were almost all women. Notably, while 77% of school-deployed classroom teachers were women, this differed by school type, with a high proportion of women in primary schools (87%), and a lower proportion in secondary schools (66%).

In all cases, as for the teacher workforce as a whole, the age and gender profiles remained relatively stable across time (see Data Portal for longitudinal trends).

Table 4: Age and gender for workforce subgroups, 2023

Leaders

As shown in Figure 2, school leaders are generally older than the overall teacher workforce. Taking a typical leadership progression as a classroom teacher to middle leader to senior leader, there are smaller proportions of those aged under 30 at each leadership step. In 2023, over half (57%) of middle leaders were aged between 30 and 50, while a majority (64%) of senior leaders were aged between 40 and 60 years. Leaders in early childhood settings have a similar age profile to school middle leaders, with 36% aged over 50, and 57% aged between 30 and 50 years in 2023.

The age profile of leaders has remained relatively constant over time. In terms of gender, men are proportionally over-represented in school leadership roles, in that they comprise 22% of the teacher workforce, but 30% of school leader roles.

Figure 2: Age distribution of middle leaders and senior leaders in schools, 2019-2023^[23]

Experience and qualifications

Teacher workforce

As displayed in Figure 3, the teacher workforce is highly experienced. In 2023, 66% of the teacher workforce had at least 10 years’ experience.^[24] One-fifth (20%) of the teacher workforce were early career teachers in their first five years of teaching. The proportions in each experience bracket remained stable over the 2019-2023 period, with a minor increase in more experienced (and a decrease in less experienced) teachers in 2021. In 2021, more experienced teachers may have decided to remain teaching due to challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and new graduates may have had difficulty finishing requirements of their degree^[25] and becoming employed as teachers.

Figure 3: Years of experience distribution for the teacher workforce, 2019-2023^[26]

Subgroups

As shown in Table 7, the general trends for the workforce subgroups are similar to that for the overall teacher workforce. That is, the largest proportion were those with 10-19 years’ experience, followed by the proportion of early career teachers (i.e., 1-5 years’ experience), with small proportions in the 30-plus years’ experience brackets. However, there were some notable deviations from this general pattern.

The proportion of early career teachers was larger for those working in remote/very remote locations. The high proportion of less experienced teachers in remote/very remote locations may reflect new graduates’ difficulty in finding permanent employment in major cities and/or their willingness to make use of incentives^[27] to work in rural areas. Recruiting and retaining teachers in remote/very remote locations has proven to be challenging, and extra supports may be required for those who do choose to work in these locations (McPherson et al., 2024).

The experience patterns for CRTs also differed from the overall teacher workforce. CRTs tended to fall into either the very experienced (24% had 40+ years’ experience) or the least experienced brackets (23% were early career teachers). Highly experienced CRTs likely take casual roles as a way of transitioning to retirement. The less experienced CRTs may be taking on casual roles to gain a variety of experiences before transitioning to more permanent employment, or may be taking casual roles as a necessity while they search for a desired permanent position.

Table 7: Years of experience for teacher workforce subgroups, 2023

Leaders

As shown in Figure 4, school leaders – and particularly senior leaders – generally have more years of experience than the broader teacher workforce. The experience profile of leaders remained relatively stable over the 2019-2023 period. However, consistent with the teacher workforce as a whole, 2021 saw a higher proportion of more experienced (and a lower proportion of less experienced) leaders. There is a slight trend towards teachers earlier in their career moving into senior leader roles. While in 2019 and 2020, 32-34% of senior leaders had at least 30 years’ experience, this had decreased to 28% in 2023. The same period saw a corresponding increase in senior leaders with 10-29 years’ experience, increasing from 57% in 2019 to 63% in 2023.

Figure 4: Years of experience distribution for middle leaders and senior leaders, schools, 2019-2023^[28]

While Figure 4 highlights the experience profiles of middle and senior leaders, further insight into career trajectories is provided when taken in context of the wider school-deployed workforce. Figure 5 presents the proportion of classroom teachers, middle leaders, and senior leaders within each experience bracket. This shows, for example, that almost all (92%) early career teachers in 2023 were classroom teachers. Middle leaders made up approximately a quarter of the workforce at each experience bracket (except 1-5 years), peaking at 27% of those in each of the 10-19 and 20-29 years’ experience brackets. While the proportion of middle leaders shows a sharp increase from 1-5 years’ experience to 6-9 years’ experience, senior leaders show a more gradual change. Senior leaders made up small proportions of those with 1-5, 6-9, or 10-19 years’ experience, though they comprised 15-19% of the workforce in each of the more experienced brackets (20 years’ experience or more).

Figure 5: Years of experience by role (classroom teacher, middle leader, senior leader), schools, 2023

Employment and workplace conditions

Employment and workplace conditions can provide insight into the job security and the demands placed on the teacher workforce. This section details the contract types teachers and leaders are employed under, average hours teachers and leaders report working, and the tasks these working hours are spent on. Given that workplace experiences, particularly in terms of face-to-face teaching and time spent on other tasks, likely differ for teachers in primary versus secondary schools, this section provides information separately for these two groups where most relevant (and for those working in combined school settings where possible). Data for those deployed in an early childhood setting are provided for some information, but not for working hours or time spent on particular duties (see Data Portal).

Employment and contracts

Teacher workforce

Contract types can be ongoing/permanent, fixed-term of one year or less (short), fixed-term of more than one year (long), or casual. As shown in Figure 6, most of the teacher workforce are employed on ongoing contracts. This has been steady across the 2020-2023 period and likely reflects both the need of schools to keep teachers permanently employed, as well as the legal limitations around the use of fixed-term contracts in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). In December 2023, updated rules were introduced that limit the use of fixed-term contracts. Under these new rules, an employee cannot be on a fixed-term contract for more than 2 years, and cannot renew a fixed-term contract more than once. Thus, while some fixed-term contracts are likely to remain for positions required to replace those on extended leave or fill other temporary vacancies, the proportion of fixed-term contracts may be expected to further reduce in the coming years.

Figure 6: Contract types for the teacher workforce, 2020-2023

Subgroups

In order to maintain the privacy of survey participants, contract-type information is not reported for all teacher workforce subgroups. However, data do show that a very high proportion of the those deployed in an early childhood setting were employed on an ongoing basis in 2023. In contrast, a lower proportion (48%) of early career teachers were employed on ongoing contracts, and this was a stable trend across the 2019-2023 period. Approximately a quarter (24%) of early career teachers were employed on short fixed-term contracts, with 19% employed on a casual basis. This may indicate that new graduate teachers take up short-term positions as a way into the workforce, allowing them to build experience before gaining permanent positions.

Contracted full-time equivalency (FTE)

The majority of the teacher workforce were employed to work full-time hours in 2023 (this was stable across the 2021-2023 period; see Data Portal for more detail). While those deployed in early childhood settings were largely in permanent positions, as shown in Table 8, a relatively high proportion were contracted to work part-time hours. As outlined earlier, those deployed in early childhood settings also tend to be younger and are mostly women. The higher proportion of part-time roles might reflect a workforce with a particular need to balance other responsibilities (such as caregiving) with their employment. Interestingly, the proportion of classroom teachers employed on part-time contracts is higher for those in primary schools (30%) than secondary schools (24%; combined schools 27%), also following the pattern for the proportion of women in each school type.

Early career teachers, and the workforce in remote/very remote locations had a higher proportion employed on full-time contracts. Schools in remote/very remote locations tend to find it more difficult to recruit and retain staff. Full-time positions may be more frequently offered since part-time positions could be more difficult to fill in areas where there may be teacher shortages.

It is also notable that almost a third of CRTs were contracted to work full-time hours. This proportion has been consistent across the 2021-2023 period and underscores the crucial role CRTs play in ensuring classrooms across Australia are fully staffed with teachers.

Table 8: Full-time status of teacher workforce subgroups, 2023

Leaders

As shown in Figure 7, most middle leaders and senior leaders were employed on ongoing contracts in 2023. This has remained stable across the 2020-2023 period. Senior leaders were slightly more likely to be employed on a long fixed-term contract than middle leaders, though the proportion employed on fixed-term contracts was very low for both groups.

Figure 7: Contract type for middle and senior leaders in schools, 2020-2023

Contracted full-time equivalency (FTE)

Most middle and senior leaders were employed to work full-time hours, and this was also stable across the 2021-2023^[30] period (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Contracted FTE for middle and senior leaders in schools, 2021-2023

Working hours

Enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs), which set out details on employment conditions such as wages and working hours, vary across states and territories and sectors. However, the limit on standard working hours is outlined in the Fair Work Act 1989 (Cth) (Fair Work Act), and is set at 38 hours per week for full-time employees (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). The Fair Work Act also stipulates a minimum of 4 weeks’ annual leave for full-time employees (though individual EBAs may provide for additional leave for particular groups or circumstances).

Teachers’ workloads may vary across the year, and some work is likely to be undertaken during school holiday periods.^[31] Responses from the Teacher Survey allow for reporting how many hours per week, on average, teachers work during the school term,^[32] as well as how many hours per week, on average, teachers work across the combination of school term and the non-teaching weeks between terms (excluding the 6-week summer holidays).^[33]

It is important to note that it can be difficult for survey respondents to estimate the average time spent working in any given week, over a year. Responses may be heavily influenced by the most recent working weeks, for instance. If teachers complete some tasks at home, such as marking or lesson-planning, it can be difficult to distinguish the specific hours spent on work versus other non-work tasks. Similarly, if weekly hours vary substantially, with very long hours during report-writing periods and shorter hours during student exam periods, it can be difficult to accurately provide the average over an entire year. However, while the hours given might be over- or under-estimated, they offer insight into how teachers perceive their workloads and provide an idea of how many hours of work are being undertaken outside of class times.

This section presents data from 2023 only, with data on trends over time available in the Data Portal. It is likely that the general pattern for over- or under- estimation is stable over time, such that when examined longitudinally, these data may provide an indication of changing perceptions in working hours across the 2019-2023 period.

School-deployed classroom teachers

As outlined above (Table 8), most teachers are employed to work full-time hours, and those who are employed to work on part-time or casual contracts vary in relation to how many days/hours per week they are contracted to work. Thus, this section focuses on the working hours of full-time teacher workforce.^[34] Working hours are also reported separately for teachers in primary, secondary, and combined schools, to examine whether there are specific trends in any particular setting.

Weekly hours during school term

Figure 9 presents the working hours of full-time school-deployed classroom teachers during school term. The median^[35] was 50 hours per week, and the average was 52 hours per week. Almost all of this group reported working over 38 hours per week during school term, with some working up to 60 hours or even more. The median hours decreased a little over the 2019-2023 period, from 55 hours in 2019 to 50 hours in both 2022 and 2023 (see Data Portal).

Figure 9: Average weekly working hours during school term for full-time school-deployed classroom teachers, 2023

The remaining details on working hours are presented in box and whisker plots. For an explanation on how to interpret these plots (compared to the above Figure 9), click through the following:

As shown in Figure 10, the average working hours during school term in 2023 did not greatly differ for full-time teachers in primary, secondary, or combined school settings. Teachers in each school type worked a median of 50 hours per week. Half of the full-time teachers in primary and combined schools reported working between 45 and 60 hours per week, whereas half of secondary full-time teachers worked between 45 and 57 hours per week.

Figure 10: Average weekly working hours during school term, full-time classroom teachers, by school type, 2023

Median working hours have decreased a little over time, particularly for primary teachers. Across 2019-2021, the median working hours for full-time primary teachers was 55 hours per week, which decreased to 51 hours in 2022, before reaching 50 hours in 2023. In contrast, median working hours for full-time secondary teachers remained at 50 or 51 hours in 2020-2023 (after a high of 55 hours reported in 2019). See the Data Portal for further longitudinal patterns.

Weekly hours including between term school holiday periods

When the school holiday periods between terms were also accounted for,^[36] the estimated average working hours across the year decreased for full-time classroom teachers in each school type, as shown in Figure 11. However, the weekly working hours for each school type remained above the full-time load of 38 hours, with medians decreasing to 46-47 hours per week. Half of the full-time teachers in each school type reported working between 41 and 54 hours on average across the year. For the median hours to decrease when holiday periods between terms are included indicates that teachers do work in school holiday periods, but work substantially fewer hours in these periods compared to school terms. The reduction in working hours during term breaks is due to the non-teaching tasks undertaken during these periods requiring a relatively short amount of time, combined with the absence of face-to-face teaching (which accounts for much of a teacher’s typical work week during term time).

Figure 11: Average weekly working hours, including between term holiday periods, full-time classroom teachers, per school type, 2023

Leaders

Weekly hours during school term

School leaders also reported working more than a typical 38-hour working week. As shown in Figure 12,^[37] during the school term in 2023 middle leaders worked a very similar number of hours to those reported by teachers. That is, half worked over 50 hours per week, with a quarter working less than 45 hours per week. Senior leaders reported working longer hours, with a median of 55 hours per week for this group. However, the reported working hours for middle and senior leaders is a combination of those contracted to work full-time and part-time hours. While only a minority of school leaders were contracted to work part-time (16% of middle leaders; 8% senior leaders), the hours reported by those leaders would influence the average metrics, such that the median and quartile values are likely lower than if only leaders on full-time contracts had been included. Furthermore, given that the proportion of middle leaders and senior leaders working part-time differ from each other, the difference in median hours between the two groups may be inflated. In future, the ATWD will be able to delineate working hours for full-time and part-time leaders more precisely.

Figure 12: Average weekly working hours during school term, middle and senior leaders, schools, 2023

Weekly hours including school holiday periods

When the school holiday periods between terms were accounted for, the average reported working hours decreased for school leaders, as presented in Figure 13. The size of the decrease was similar to that of full-time classroom teachers, with the median working hours reducing by 3-4 hours per week when holiday periods between terms were taken into account. For school leaders, weekly working hours remained higher than the standard full-time load of 38 hours, with half of middle leaders working between 41 and 55 hours per week, and half of senior leaders between 45 and 58 hours per week across the year.

Figure 13: Average weekly working hours, including between term holiday periods, middle and senior leaders, schools, 2023

Working hours per school remoteness subgroups

As shown in Table 9, median working hours did not differ greatly for those in different remoteness locations, with particularly consistent hours reported for full-time classroom teachers and middle leaders. The working hours of senior leaders somewhat differed by school remoteness. Senior leaders in remote/very remote locations reported working around 5 hours more per week than senior leaders in other locations.

Table 9: Median of average weekly working hours, teachers and leaders, by school remoteness, 2023

Face-to-face teaching hours

A key component of teachers’ EBAs are their face-to-face teaching hours. Across states and territories, those in government schools currently have EBAs that establish maximums between 19.5 and 23.7 hours of face-to-face teaching per week. Generally, the maximum face-to-face teaching hours are higher for primary than secondary school teachers. As the standard working hours for full-time employees are set at an average of 38 hours per week, it is expected that a full-time teacher would work 38 hours per week, with face-to-face teaching forming a large component of these weekly hours.

Table 10 shows that primary school classroom teachers did report spending more time than secondary school classroom teachers on face-to-face teaching. These data also show that full-time classroom teachers report average face-to-face hours that are broadly in line with the maximum face-to-face hours stipulated in EBAs. Indeed, the raw Teacher Survey data show a tendency for many teachers to round off their face-to-face teaching hours in 5-hour increments; if teachers round up rather than round off, this could account for the average face-to-face teaching hours being a little higher than those outlined in EBAs.

Table 10 also shows that middle and senior leaders undertook some face-to-face teaching in 2023. There was no notable change in reported face-to-face teaching hours over the 2019-2023 period, indicating that the teaching provided by school leaders in 2023 was consistent with past years.

The face-to-face hours reported in Table 10 also provide further context for the overall working hours reported in the previous section. Full-time classroom teachers reported working a median of 50 hours per week during school term (Figure 10). Here, it is shown that approximately half of those hours were spent face-to-face teaching. It follows that around 25 hours per week on average are spent on tasks other than face-to-face teaching. Given that the face-to-face teaching hours are not greatly in excess of what is expected for this task (as per EBAs), and are not necessarily amenable to being reduced due to the schooling needs of students, it becomes clear that the time spent on other tasks is likely the cause for teachers’ long working hours. The time spent on duties other than face-to-face teaching likely needs to be reduced in order to decrease overall working hours.

Table 10: Median reported weekly face-to-face teaching hours, by school type and role, 2023

Teacher duties

Teachers and leaders report working more than the standard 38-hours per week, on average. For teachers, and leaders who undertake teaching responsibilities, their work hours are split between face-to-face teaching and a variety of other tasks.

Distinguishing the time spent face-to-face teaching versus other duties is difficult, given that during face-to-face teaching, other tasks are also undertaken such as assessing students, or refining lesson plans based on how well a class understands a concept. However, examining the time spent on various tasks may help point to duties that can be streamlined, allocated to support staff, or otherwise eased to allow teachers to focus on their most important responsibilities. The duties outlined in this section do not necessarily cover all of the duties that teachers undertake. Furthermore, in some cases, indicating how many hours are spent on each task may be difficult if the tasks are seen as overlapping (e.g., if ‘teamwork’ is also seen as part of one’s ‘leadership role’), or if multiple tasks are performed simultaneously (e.g., marking while supervising or face-to-face teaching). As a result, the hours spent on teacher duties should not be summed, nor should they be added to the face-to-face teaching hours to reach the overall working hours.

Note that data presented in this section are only for full-time primary and secondary classroom teachers, and for primary and secondary school leaders and not teachers and leaders in early childhood settings, or CRTs.

School-deployed classroom teachers

As shown in Table 11, the average weekly hours^[38] spent on each teacher duty was broadly similar across primary and secondary classroom teachers, and across years. In 2023, both primary and secondary full-time teachers spent the most time on student supervision and planning lessons. Classroom teachers in both primary and secondary schools spent an average of between 9 and 11 hours per week on each of these two tasks. If these duties were split evenly across the working week, this would mean around 4 hours per day were spent on student supervision and lesson planning. As a proportion of time spent on all non-teaching tasks, supervision and lesson planning accounted for an average of 45% of primary and 39% of secondary teachers’ time. It must be acknowledged that teachers may have understood the meaning of ‘student supervision’ in different ways, as reported hours were at both the lower and higher ends (0-4 hours and 20 hours+) and some teachers may have reported their face-to-face teaching hours as ‘student supervision’.

Other duties also take up substantial time in teachers’ weeks. Both primary and secondary teachers spent between 5 and 7 hours per week on each of administration, general teamwork with colleagues, and marking of student work. As shown in Table 11, for classroom teachers in both primary and secondary schools, the hours spent on most non-teaching duties remained relatively stable across the 2021-2023 period.

The time spent on some of these duties may be reduced in future. Part of the focus for the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (NTWAP), agreed by Education Ministers in December 2022, is to determine the optimal deployment of non-teaching support staff to reduce teacher workload. It may be that school support staff can undertake some supervision and administrative tasks, for example. Similarly, reducing the time required for planning lessons has been the focus of several proposals, largely around providing centralised, curated, curriculum resources (e.g., Hunter et al., 2022). Underscoring the complexity of teachers’ work, reducing time for particular tasks may not reduce working hours overall, and a careful balance is needed to allow teachers to spend most time on the duties they see as most important to their role (Stacey et al., 2024).

Table 11: Average weekly hours per non-teaching duty, primary and secondary full-time classroom teachers, 2021-2023

Leaders

School leaders must participate in a range of important duties to keep their schools running efficiently and effectively. Some of these duties, such as interacting with parents/carers, are common to both teachers and leaders, while other duties are more specific to those in leadership roles.

As shown in Table 12 and Table 13, in 2023 middle leaders in both primary and secondary schools spent between 9 and 13 hours per week interacting with students, performing administrative tasks and attending meetings, and more general teaching responsibilities. This range of duties reflects the varied nature of the middle leader role, which often combines teaching with leadership responsibilities. In 2023, senior leaders in primary and secondary schools spent between 17 and 20 hours on administrative tasks and meetings, and between 9 and 12 hours on interactions with students and undertaking instructional leadership tasks and meetings. Both middle and senior leaders also spent a notable amount of time interacting with parents/carers, and on professional learning for school staff.

While leaders spent time on a range of tasks, middle and senior leaders in both primary and secondary schools spent around half (48-52%) of their duties time on two tasks: interacting with students and undertaking administrative tasks and meetings. The relative contribution of these two tasks has remained stable over the 2021-2023 period.

Table 12: Average weekly hours per leader duty, full-time primary leaders, 2021-2023

Table 13: Average weekly hours per leader duty, full-time secondary leaders, 2021-2023

Specific workforce experiences

Some workplace experiences are particularly important for specific subgroups of the teacher workforce. This section outlines the rates and types of induction activities experienced by the teacher workforce in their early career period, and, for those teaching secondary-level learners, the occurrence of teaching subjects outside their area of expertise.

Induction for early career teachers

A fundamental support for early career teachers is to provide them with a comprehensive induction (Kelly et al., 2019). During a formal induction, early career teachers build on knowledge and experiences from their initial teacher education program, helping to develop their practice.^[43] Formal induction is important because it can introduce early career teachers to the school community, working culture and teaching environment, as well as provide support to enhance their pedagogy, hone their professional identity and successfully manage the challenges of their role.

As shown in Figure 14, 55% of early career teachers received a formal induction in 2023. The proportion of those receiving formal induction, particularly in their first two years of their career, decreased from 2020 to 2021 then remained relatively steady through to 2023.

Figure 14: Proportion of early career teachers who received a formal induction, 2019-2023

The proportions of school-deployed early career teachers experiencing each specific induction activity generally decreased from 2021 to 2022 and remained low in 2023, as shown in Figure 15.

For early career teachers in either their first two years, or in years 3-5 of their career, the only specific activities received by more than half were an orientation program (77-78%) and mentoring (66%). While each individual induction activity was experienced by some school-deployed early career teachers, the low proportions overall in 2023 indicate that the breadth of induction experiences were generally low. For example, it appears that the 55% of early career teachers who reported receiving an induction only experienced a small number of possible induction activities – possibly only an orientation program and mentoring. It is possible that high work hours among the wider workforce, including leaders, and long hours spent on non-teaching duties has led to induction activities being de-prioritised. It may be that fewer induction activities can be offered in schools than in previous years.

Figure 15: School-deployed early career teachers induction activity experiences, 2019-2023^[44]

Panel A: Early career teachers with 1-2 years’ experience:

Panel B: Early career teachers with 3-5 years’ experience:

School-deployed early career teachers also indicated which induction activity they found the most useful. The activity that was ranked the most useful (as a proportion of those who had received it) was mentoring (55%), followed closely by a reduction in face-to-face teaching time (51%). The opportunity to observe experienced teachers (32%) and an orientation program (24%) were ranked next most useful, with the remaining activities all less useful (3-12%). A focus for induction programs, therefore, may be to increase the number of early career teachers receiving mentoring and allocating time for them to observe experienced teachers.

Out-of-field teaching

Teachers develop areas of specialisation over the course of their initial teacher education, and can add to their specialisations through further study and professional learning throughout their career. However, for a variety of reasons teachers may be required to teach a subject/s in which they have not specialised (Shah et al., 2020). These circumstances range from broad workforce issues such as teacher shortages or unequal distributions of teachers with particular specialisations, to school-based timetabling issues such as those related to small populations in remote areas. This is known as out-of-field teaching, which has been a persistent issue across the teacher workforce in Australia. While out-of-field teaching may help to temporarily fix teacher shortages in particular locations or subject areas, it can also have negative long-term impacts on both student and teacher performance (Luft et al., 2020).

Analysing out-of-field teaching rates is critical for future teacher workforce planning. Particular subject areas that may be facing supply shortages can be identified, which in turn can help to inform future policy initiatives and ensure a sustainable teacher supply across all specialisations.

School-deployed workforce teaching secondary learners

To provide an overview of the occurrence of out-of-field teaching, the Teacher Survey asked respondents whether, within the preceding two years, they had taught in their area of specialisation exclusively, sometimes, or not at all.^[45]

As shown in Figure 16, in 2023 half (51%) of those teaching secondary learners had exclusively taught in-field in the two years prior to the survey (i.e., within the 2022-2023 period). The remaining half (49%) had taught at least some subjects in areas for which they were not specifically qualified.

Figure 16: Out-of-field teaching, school-deployed workforce teaching secondary learners, 2021-2023

Subgroups

As shown in Table 14, rates of out-of-field teaching were broadly similar for most subgroups of the workforce teaching secondary learners. Higher rates of out-of-field teaching were undertaken by those in remote/very remote or outer regional locations. This is likely because schools located in remote and very remote areas are more likely to face difficulties in recruiting teachers with the necessary specialisations (Shah et al., 2020). Senior leaders also undertook higher rates of out-of-field teaching, which likely reflects that much of their teaching may be ad hoc, such as when a teacher is unwell and a replacement cannot be found.

While the rates of out-of-field teaching for early career teachers were similar to those for the overall workforce, this remains an area to monitor. Early career teachers are honing their teaching skills even within their specialised areas, and so it may be particularly demanding for them to apply their skills to subject areas for which they are not specialised. Indeed, it has been shown by some researchers that early career teachers who are required to teach out-of-field may become more likely to intend to leave the profession in the future (Wheeley et al., 2023).

Table 14: Out-of-field teaching, secondary school-deployed workforce subgroups, 2023

Key Learning Areas (KLAs)

The ATWD differentiates between teachers with some relevant study in a subject area’s content or pedagogy and those who have completed at least one semester of tertiary study in both content and pedagogy in a subject that was taught. The latter are classified as in-field. Teachers with relevant tertiary study in either content or pedagogy were classified as teaching out-of-field but with ‘some ITE’. Teachers with no relevant tertiary study in a subject that was taught were classified as out-of-field (even if they had undertaken some professional learning).

As shown in Table 15, rates of out-of-field teaching in 2023 differed by KLA. Across KLAs, 24%–39% of teachers who taught secondary subjects in each KLA were teaching out-of-field (either with some or no ITE study). The KLAs with the lowest out-of-field teaching rates were English, performing arts, and science, with around a quarter of teachers in these three KLAs teaching out-of-field. Higher rates of out-of-field teaching were seen for technology, arts, and mathematics, with close to 40% of teachers of these KLAs teaching out-of-field. The different proportions of those with some versus no ITE may also provide useful information. For example, while overall out-of-field teaching rates were very similar for technology and mathematics, a higher proportion of out-of-field mathematics teachers had undertaken a little relevant tertiary study.

Table 15 also shows the proportion of those teaching out-of-field for individual subjects within the science KLA. Biology, chemistry, and physics all showed relatively low proportions of out-of-field teaching, ranging from 20 to 27%.

Table 15: Out-of-field teaching across Key Learning Areas (teachers of secondary learners), 2023^[46]

Workforce intentions and pressures

Teaching is an important and rewarding profession, yet it is also highly demanding. Teachers face increasing societal expectations in terms of what their roles should cover, and how their tasks should be fulfilled (Hunter & Sonnemann, 2022). As covered in this report, teachers report working long hours, across a diverse range of tasks. While these data underscore the dedication and valuable skillset of our teacher workforce, they may also indicate the workforce is under stress. Particularly in the midst of a teacher shortage, it is critical to understand the likelihood of teachers leaving the profession, and to consider whether reasons for their intentions reveal potential actions to be taken to retain current teachers and attract new teachers to the profession.

Career intentions

This section examines teachers reported career intentions. The Teacher Survey captures career intentions of respondents in three broad categories of intentions: ‘leave before retirement’, ‘remain until retirement’, and ‘unsure.’ The timeframe in which respondents intend to leave the profession is also captured. Across jobs in Australia, job mobility has been relatively high in recent years, particularly in 2022 and 2023, and particularly among younger workers (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2024a). Just as people change jobs outside of teaching, or change careers later in life, so too might we expect some of the teacher workforce to exit the profession before retirement. Exploring reasons for teachers’ intentions to leave the teacher workforce can help inform strategies and initiatives aimed at supporting, and retaining, teachers.

Teacher workforce

As shown in Figure 17, in 2023 just over a quarter (26%) of the teacher workforce intended to stay in the profession until retirement. A higher proportion (35%) were unsure of their career plans, with 39% intending to leave the profession sometime before retirement.

The proportion of the teacher workforce who were unsure about their future career intentions was relatively stable across the 2019-2023 period. The proportion of teachers intending to leave before retirement increased from 2021 to 2023, with a corresponding decrease in the proportion intending to stay until retirement. For those who indicated intentions to leave before retirement, the proportion intending to leave in the shorter-term (within 1 year, or 2-4 years) and longer-term (5-9 years or 10+ years) both increased from 2021 to 2023. The proportion of teachers intending to leave within the next 5 years increased by 8 percentage points to 14%, while those intending to leave in 5 years or more increased by 7 percentage points to 17%.

Figure 17: Career intentions of the teacher workforce, 2019-2023^[47]

Subgroups

In 2023, across each teacher workforce subgroup, approximately a quarter of teachers intended to stay in the profession, one-third were unsure of their intentions, and around two-fifths intended to leave before retirement (Table 16). This is broadly in line with intentions across the whole teacher workforce. However, there was some variation across subgroups.

A higher proportion of CRTs intend to stay in the profession than the overall teacher workforce (or other subgroups). There are many potential reasons for this. For example, given that a relatively large proportion of CRTs are older (Table 4), more experienced (Table 7), and may be taking CRT roles as they transition to retirement, it is perhaps not surprising that many CRTs intend to keep teaching until they retire.

Interestingly, the proportion of early career teachers who intend to leave the profession before retirement is comparable to that for the broader teacher workforce. This may reflect generally high rates of job mobility, where it is common for individuals entering the workforce to assume they will have more than one career in their working life. These intentions may also signal a need to bolster supports for teachers beginning their careers, such as sufficient induction and mentorship support, as this may aid in improving the retention of early career teachers (Kelly et al., 2019).

Table 16: Career intentions, teacher workforce subgroups, 2023

Leaders

Career intentions among middle leaders was generally consistent with the broader teacher workforce in 2023, though middle leaders were more likely to report staying in the profession (26%) compared with classroom teachers (22%). Senior leaders were more likely to intend to stay in the profession until retirement (33%) compared to middle leaders (Table 17). The higher proportion of intentions to stay among senior leaders may be due to their increased job security and remuneration compared to middle leaders and teachers. Additionally, the slightly older age of senior leaders (see Figure 2) may play a factor in their intentions to stay until retirement.

Table 17: Career intentions, leaders, 2023

Reasons for career intentions

While age is one factor related to whether a teacher is likely to intend to stay in the profession until retirement, there are a range of reasons that are reported as the basis of this decision. As shown in Figure 19, 4 of the top 5 reasons^[50] for intending to leave the profession in 2023 related to either workload or wellbeing: workload, work-life balance, work-related stress, and administrative workload.^[51] Each of these reasons were cited by more than 60% of those intending to leave the teaching profession before retirement. Insufficient pay (52%) and demands of professional regulation (50%) were the only other reasons that were reported by at least half of the teacher workforce.

Figure 19: Reasons for intending to leave the profession, 2023

Since 2019, workload, work-life balance and work-related stress have consistently been the top three reasons cited by teachers intending to leave the profession (Table 18). Given that three-quarters of the full-time teacher workforce reported working at least 45 hours per week in 2023 (Figure 10), it is unsurprising that teachers point to workload and stress as factors influencing their career intentions.

Outside of teacher workload and wellbeing, teachers also increasingly cited student behaviour and parent behaviour as reasons for intending to leave the profession. From 2022 to 2023, the largest increase across all reasons for intending to leave were student behaviour (+9 percentage points) and parent behaviour (+5 percentage points).

Table 18: Reasons for intending to leave the profession, 2019-2023

Non-deployed registered teachers

While the vast majority (81%) of registered teachers were actively teaching in 2023, there was a small proportion of registered teachers who were not teaching. Some would be expected to return, as on an extended leave of absence. Others may be unemployed, working elsewhere, or already retired. This group may be a source of additional teacher supply, if they chose to re-enter the active teacher workforce. Approximately 50% of this group in the Teacher Survey left the teacher workforce in the last 2 years.

In the Teacher Survey, non-teaching registered teachers (excluding those who were on leave) were asked how likely they were to return to the teaching profession. In 2023, over half of non-teaching registered teachers said they would consider returning to the teacher workforce under the right circumstances, and 5% said they were actively looking to return to the profession (Figure 20).

Figure 20: Likelihood of considering returning to the profession, non-teaching registered teachers, 2022-2023

Non-teaching registered teachers were also asked what would need to change in order for them to return to teaching.^[52] As shown in Figure 21, the two most commonly cited areas of influence on a non-teaching registered teachers’ decision to return to the profession were a reduction in workload (58%), and higher salary (37%).

A smaller proportion of non-teaching registered teachers cited that more pathways to leadership (15%), more jobs in the area they live in (12%) and more jobs in their subject area (8%) could influence their decision to return to the profession.

Figure 21: Reasons that could influence returning to the profession, non-teaching registered teachers, 2022-2023

Retirement and other attrition

To gain an overall view of the state of the workforce, it is important to examine how many teachers choose to leave the profession, and at which points in their career they tend to do so. Some teachers will stay until they retire, commonly after many years of working in schools. Non-retirement workforce attrition also occurs, when teachers choose to leave for a multitude of other reasons. One particularly pertinent question is whether teachers tend to leave in their early career period.

Tracking retirement and other attrition is made more complex by some teachers opting to maintain their registration, despite no longer working in schools or early childhood settings. In some cases, a teacher might maintain their registration with the intention of returning to the profession in future, though this does not always occur. This means that, while analysing the number of registrations year-to-year^[53] is one way to examine overall attrition, it does not provide all of the necessary information.

The ATWD currently estimates yearly attrition by connecting currently registered teachers (i.e., registered in 2023) with the year they graduated from their ITE degree. Examining the proportion of those from each year of graduates who remained registered in 2023 provides an indirect estimate of the proportion of teachers who leave the profession (i.e., are no longer registered) each year. Additionally, to provide an overview of the proportion of those who leave the workforce who were in the early-, mid-, or late-career stages, the experience brackets of Teacher Survey respondents who indicated they were no longer working as teachers (but are still registered) are reported. Those with more years’ experience are more likely to have left the profession due to retirement.

Registration discontinuation

The ATWD has unique access to Australia-wide teacher registration data and can, therefore, estimate attrition timeframes in Australia’s teacher workforce by analysing the number of ITE graduates^[54] from each graduate cohort who remain registered at future points in time. Figure 22 shows the proportion of teachers who graduated in each year from 2007 to 2022 who were still registered in 2023. This shows that of those who graduated in 2022, 95% were registered in 2023. In other words, it appears that 5% of 2022 graduates did not register as a teacher in the year after graduation. Some may become registered at a later time point. Discontinuation of registration is the difference from this 95%.

For the cohort of graduates who would have been at the end of their five-year early-career period in 2023 (i.e., 2018 graduates), 91% remained registered. If similar proportions of each graduate cohort do not enter the teacher workforce (~5%), this indicates that around 4% of the 2018 graduate cohort ceased registration during their early career period.

Examining much earlier graduate cohorts shows that of those who graduated in 2007, 75% were still registered in 2023. On average, the proportion of ITE graduates who remain registered decreased by an average of approximately 1.4 percentage points per year. While this is a little lower than the 2-5% of the teacher workforce who indicated an intention to leave the profession within one year across the 2019-2023 Teacher Surveys (see Figure 17), the difference might be attributable to some teachers maintaining their registration after leaving the workforce. Registration renewal cycles differ by state/territory and teachers who leave the workforce may still hold valid registration until it lapses. Of 2023 survey respondents, over 50% of those non-deployed and not on leave reported that they left the profession 3 or more years ago (but were still registered). That is, the actual rate of attrition is likely higher than the rates of discontinued registration. An individual’s reported career intentions may not predict whether (or when) they will cease their registration, but as an average for the workforce, registration discontinuation rates offer a useful barometer of future trends in attrition.

Figure 22. Proportion of ITE graduates registered in 2023 per year of graduation, 2007-2022,^[55] excluding WA^[56]

Experience levels of teachers who leave the profession

Examining the years of experience of those who leave the teacher workforce is one way to estimate whether attrition is attributable to specific groups (such as those who have reached retirement age, or teachers in their early career period). As shown in Table 19, those who indicated in the Teacher Survey that they had left the teacher workforce in 2023 had a wide range of years of experience. Furthermore, workforce attrition in 2023 was representative (in terms of years of experience) of the whole teacher workforce. For example, while 19% of those who left were early career teachers, this was representative of the proportion of early career teachers in the workforce (20%). This was also the case for mid-career teachers. The only exception was for highly experienced (40+ years’ experience) teachers – while this group made up 8% of the workforce in 2023, a higher proportion (16%) of these highly experienced teachers left the workforce in 2023. This group were most likely those who had reached retirement.

Table 19: Proportions per years of experience bracket of the 2023 teacher workforce versus those who left the teacher workforce in 2023

Conclusion

Data presented in this report show that Australia has an experienced and dedicated teacher workforce. There is relative stability in the make-up of our teachers in relation to demographics, experience, and employment conditions, with only minor shifts seen in some variables over the 5 years from 2019 to 2023.

Data revealing long working hours and an increase in teachers’ intentions to leave the profession before retirement indicate a workforce under some stress. However, findings also highlight potential areas in which to target strategies that may help decrease the pressure on teachers. For instance, hours spent on administration may be disproportionately contributing to overall working hours, and therefore may be worthwhile targets to decrease workload. Both workload and administrative workload were in the top 5 reasons that teachers considered leaving the profession. Governments across Australia are enacting various initiatives and policies targeting such issues. The low rates of induction for new teachers may also point to another area in which to target initiatives, with the aim of improving new teachers’ transition to the workforce.

A particular value of the ATWD is the collection of data over consecutive years, and the unification of various important data sources. This allows for trends in key markers of workforce experiences and pressures to be monitored over time. The ATWD will continue to collect and report on such markers to examine the impact of various policies, such as those arising from the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, in the coming years.