Job Availability



The availability of jobs varies from year to year. In high schools and universities, peak hiring times are for jobs starting in March/April and September, but the schools may look for applicants as soon as 6 months before the position opens, so there tend to be opportunities available at any given time. Supply of teachers usually follows demand, but will often lag behind for a few years.

For example, after the bubble burst in the early 90's, teachers continued to flood the market while openings decreased in number. In the past few years, however, the supply of teachers for private schools has dried up and schools are finding it more difficult to round up qualified applicants. (Unfortunately, teacher pay scales have not yet reflected this.) Universities used to hire teachers for long periods of time, but the recent trend is to keep instructors for 3 years and then drop them and hire new ones, primarily as a money-saving strategy.

The most recent news is the bottom falling out of the Asian markets in late '97. Strangely enough, this may not mean fewer teaching jobs, as the drop in jobs may be compensated for in fewer people going to Asia to work because they hear things are tough over there financially. Last I heard, there are still few teachers answering ads compared to three or four years ago.



Kinds of Jobs Salary and Benefits


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