Where you'll find teaching jobs next year and beyond

Updated: January 7, 2019

Despite all the lay-off announcements in the last few months, the employment outlook for secondary and elementary teachers looks positive in the next 10 years.

The Provincial Government's BC Labour Market Outlook, 2009-2019 forecast estimates that a total of 25,460 job openings for secondary and primary teachers will be available in that time frame. However, it does not distinguish between the labour market outlook for secondary and primary teachers, nor does it distinguish between teachers from one subject area to another.

The majority of these job openings will come from "replacement demand" generated mainly by retirement, and the remaining jobs will come from economic growth in the province. Although it is predicted that there will be an overall excess supply of teachers in the province over the next 10 years, it should not be interpreted that there will be no jobs for teachers.

Not surprisingly, the forecast projects that there will be 16,390 job openings in the most populous part of the province, Mainland/Southwest Region. In the next 10 years, the greatest growth in labour demand for teachers will be in the Northeast region at 5.2% (460 jobs).

In 2009, 1,694 teaching jobs were posted on MakeAFuture.ca.

The BC Labour Market Outlook, 2009-2019 provides a provincial and regional description of the BC labour market across various professions, and the complete document is available on WorkBC.ca. See which districts are hiring today by searching for a teaching job on MakeAFuture.ca.